
Book ^( x 4 

GoipglitT^^- 



CDFffilGHT DEPOSm 



GPO 



^n American Commentary 
on the Old Testament 



^W" 



LEVITICUS 
AND NUMBERS 



GSO. F. GENUNG, D. D. 



American Baptist Publication Society 



I 

AN 



AMERICAN COMMENTARY "^ 



^iisx 



ON THE 



OLD TESTAMENT 



PHILADELPHIA 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

1630 CHESTNUT STREET 



r " ijQC 



The Book of Leviticus 



BY 

GEORGE F. GENUNG, D. D. 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Copies Received 

APR 10 1906 

^ Copyrisht Entry 
CUKSS_/^ XXc. No. 






Copyright 1905 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 



Published March, 1906 



JFtom tbe Society's own press 



INTRODUCTION 



The name "Leviticus" is the one given to this section of the Pentateuch 
in the Septuagint and Vulgate versions. It is an adjective, the word *'book" 
being understood with it. The Levitical book is thus named from its subject — the 
book of Levitical laws. In the Hebrew it is designated, as it was the Hebrew habit 
to do, from its opening word, ^'^p''!, wayyiqra\ "and called," sc. Jehovah. It is 
probable that originally the book was not set off by itself, but was simply ten out 
of the fifty-four sections into which the whole of the Mosaic writings was divided 
— a division which still remains in our Hebrew Bibles. But by the time of St, 
Jerome even the rabbins had adopted the pentateuchal division, giving to each of 
the five books the name of its opening section. 

In Leviticus is described the inauguration of the full system of sacrificial wor- 
ship. It is almost entirely made up of legislation. Ordinances and institutions 
of a ceremonial nature occur also in other parts of the Pentateuch, and the account 
of these is usually incorporated by the author in a narrative giving the occasion 
for their rise. This method is followed to some extent in Leviticus, but here the 
laws predominate very largely over the history. Of pure narrative, indeed, we 
have but little ; the account of the consecration of the priests (chap. 8, 9), of the 
death of Aaron's sons (chap. 10), in consequence of which not only the immediately 
following legislation but the rites of the Day of Atonement (chap. 16) seem to have 
been instituted, and the story of the blasphemer (24 : 10, seq.), to which are attached 
the laws regarding blasphemy and retaliation, being the entire extent of the strictly 
narrative portion. So predominantly is the book taken up with regulations regard- 
ing worship and ceremonial purification, or with moral precepts which are inter- 
esting from a priestly point of view, that, as compared with other books of Scrip- 
ture, it has an unusual unity, and is fitly called the Levitical book, or book of 
priestly laws. 

The book naturally divides itself into two parts followed by a supplementary 
chapter. The first part, which consists of the first sixteen chapters, contains the 
fundamental laws of sacrifice, purification, and atonement. The laws of the five 
principal types of sacrifice occupy the first five chapters and seven verses of the 
sixth, which in our Hebrew Bibles are attached to the fifth chapter. Then follows 
a manual of priestly directions under eight heads, giving certain regulations to be 
observed by the priests in sacrificing the various offerings and by the people in eat- 
ing the peace offerings ; defining the priest's share in the burnt, meal, and peace 
off*erings, and inserting the ritual of the guilt offering, which was omitted when that 
off'ering was introduced and defined in the fifth chapter. Then follows a narrative 
portion, giving an account of the consecration of the priests and their entry upon 
office, copied almost exactly, witli a change of tense, from the directions for that 
ceremonial given in Exod. 29. This takes up the eighth and ninth chapters, and 

V 



vi INTKODUCTION 



is followed in the tenth chapter by the story of the sad fate of Nadab and Abihu, 
with some regulations and incidents growing out of it. The subject of uncleanness 
and purification occupies the whole group of chapters eleven to fifteen, the eleventh 
chapter legislating regarding clean and unclean animals, the twelfth in regard to pur- 
ification after childbirth, the thirteenth and fourteenth concerning the important 
subject of leprosy, and the fifteenth in regard to uncleanness from secretions. The 
sixteenth chapter forms a fitting climax to this first part of the book by giving the 
ceremonial of the great Day of Atonement, which attaches itself as its historical 
point of departure to the dreadful judgment upon Nadab and Abihu for their too 
rash familiarity with the sanctities of the holy place. 

The second part, chapters seventeen to twenty-six, consists of legislation which, 
because it speaks more distinctively from the standpoint of personal and ceremonial 
purity, has been denominated the law of holiness. It begins in chapter seventeen 
with general regulations as to killing animals for food and sacrificing. The eighteenth 
chapter occupies itself with unlawful marriages and lusts, and is followed, after a 
most edifying chapter (19) of miscellaneous religious and moral precepts, by a code 
of penalties (chap. 20) attached to the off'enses specified in chapter eighteen. In the 
twenty-first and twenty-second chapters are regulations as to domestic and personal 
purity touching priests and ofi'erings. The next chapter (23) is a calendar of sacred 
seasons. A somewhat miscellaneous chapter, the twenty-fourth, containing regu- 
lations regarding the lamps in the tabernacle, and the shewbread, and concluding 
with the incident of the blasphemer, is here inserted. Then follows the important 
twenty-fifth chapter on the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee ; and the whole 
ends with a hortatory conclusion (chap. 26) containing promises and threatenings, 
and concluding with a final subscription as if the book were finished. 

The supplementary chapter (27) relates to the commutation of vows and dues, 
and ends with a repetition of the subscription to the laws. 

As to the authorship of this civil and ceremonial legislation, undoubtedly the 
universal Jewish belief, at least in New Testament times, and we do not know how 
much earlier, was that "the law was given hj Moses." Kot only was he thought 
of as the lawgiver, or receiver and oral transmitter of Jehovah's commands, but as 
the writer of those words in their present form. The entire pentateuchal history 
and legislation had by the time the first instalment of the Septuagint version was 
made (264-248 b. c.) been wrought into a single canon or book, which was uncrit- 
ically accepted as a whole ; and from that time forward the conditions existed for 
the formation and acceptance of a tradition that the great lawgiver who figured so 
prominently in its pages as the recipient of the divine communications, and who 
was represented on several occasions as writing down certain specific portions 
by express command, was the author of the whole collection, including its very 
considerable anonymous portions. 

In various passages of the Hexateuch the act of writing, or the written docu- 
ment, is expressly meniaoned ; as where Moses is directed to write the historj^ of 
Amalek's enmity in a book (Exod. ITK: 14) ; where he writes the words of the cov- 
enant (Exod. 24 : 4) ; where the substance of the covenant is rehearsed, after the 
second giving of the tables of stone, and directed to be written (Exod. 34 : 27) ; 
where Moses by divine command keeps the log or itinerary of the journeyings of 



INTKODUCTION vii 



the children of Israel (Num. 33 : 2) ; where the law, at least of Deuteronomy, is 
spoken of as kept in charge of the priests, the Levites, and the king that shall arise 
in the future is directed to make a copy therefrom for his own use (Deut. 17 : 18) ; 
where Moses writes the deuteronomic law and delivers it to the priests (Deut. 
81 : 9) ; and finally where the commands of the lawgiver are spoken of by Joshua 
as written in the book of the law of Moses (Josh. 8 : 31 ; 23 : 6). In the book of 
Judges (3 : 4), and throughout the Old Testament, Moses is referred to as a law- 
giver ; while in the books of Kings his laws are especially spoken of as written 
(1 Kings 2 : 3 ; 2 Kings 14 : 6). Whatever date between Sinai and Christ we may 
assign to the redacted and completed Hexateuch, or to these historical books, this 
much at least is certain, that the history of Israel, as the biblical authors wrote and 
understood it, proceeds upon the supposition that Moses wrote considerable portions 
of the moral and ceremonial law. 

And yet the evidence, however it may have been understood or supplemented 
by tradition in later times, gives us surprisingly little knowledge of the authorship 
of the law as a whole. "In point of fact," says Professor Robertson, "the books 
of the Pentateuch, like the historical books which follow them, are anonymous. 
The book of Genesis gives no hint of its authorship, neither does the book of 
Leviticus ; and the few passages found in the other books which speak of Moses 
writing such and such things 'in a book,' will be discovered on examination to 
refer to certain specific things. Indeed the very fact of such expressions occurring 
within the books may even be taken as a presumption that it was not he Avho 
wrote the whole." 

How much of the legislation in its present form is from Moses' hand it is im- 
possible for us to determine. That he started in at the beginning and produced a 
finished draft of the law as it now stands, few at this day would have the hardihood 
to maintain. Modern historical criticism seems to find clear indications of different 
documentary strata from which the various narrations and commands of the Pen- 
tateuch were drawn. Of the legislation the most ancient is thought to be that part 
which Moses in Exodus is said to have written, designated as the Book of the Cov- 
enant. The deuteronomic code or homily is figured as reflecting priestly or pro- 
phetic reformatory effort during the latter part of the period of the monarchy, say 
in the reign of Manasseh or Josiah ; while that part of the law dubbed the priest- 
code, to which the book of Leviticus belongs, is thought to have attained its final 
shape the latest of all. Of this priest-code Kautzsch says : "Everything appears in 
the best order and self-evident when we think of the codifications as arising in this 
order : Deuteronomy, Ezek. 40-48, Law of Holiness, Priests' Code. The latter . . . 
obtained official validity through Ezra, and afterwards continued to be the standard 
of ritual and life and of the entire view of history amongst the Jews. In the grad- 
ually written expositions of Israel's laws of life it was the last word.'' As to the 
correctness of these opinions, it must be said that while a sane scholarship will 
reject many of the extravagancies which accompany the ingenious reconstructions 
of Israelitish history concocted in German brains, and will maintain that the patri- 
archal and wilderness history was not consciously invented by late writers, and that 
there was a legislative and priestly literary activity long before the prophets, never- 
theless the research of recent years has presented at least enough evidence of the 



viii INTRODUCTION 



composite nature of the Pentateuch so that belief therein is held by scholars who 
are accounted among the most conservative and devout. 

The laws purport at the outset to be a verbatim reproduction of words spoken 
privately to Moses by Jehovah ; the communication being at first stated to be from 
the tent of meeting (1:1; comp. Exod. 33 : 7, 11), afterward from Mount Sinai 
(25 : 1 ; 26 : 46 ; 27 : 34 ; comp. Exod. 24 : 18 ; 25 : 1). That the author's thought, 
however, does not consistently keep to the image of this communication as so 
secluded and detached from its occasion as this would imply is evident, not only 
from the apparent latitude in respect to the place, but from the repeated intro- 
duction of narrative giving the occasion for some law, from the fact that Aaron is 
often included in the address, and especially from the odd way in which, in at least 
one instance, the author awakes to the fact that it is the priest whom Jehovah 
must be taken as addressing (27 : 12). This peculiar literary method of intro- 
ducing direct speeches as if they were the exact words of Jehovah is due to the fact 
that the Hebrew language has developed only in the most rudimentary way an in- 
direct form of discourse, and therefore has no convenient method of indicating that 
a communication is reported only for substance. The conventional literary or 
juristic form, ''The Lord spake unto Moses saying," may thus easily be under- 
stood to imply no more exact communication than that the legislation in question 
was divinely revealed to the lawgiver. 

This book of Levitical regulations as we have it no doubt represents usages and 
ideas that were in process of growth in the priestly circles during all the period of 
the tabernacle and the first temple. In the time of Jeremiah the promulgation of 
law seems to have been popularly thought of as a characteristic function of the 
priesthood (Jer. 18 : 18 ; see also Ezek. 7 : 26). Some of the usages thus chronicled 
are very ancient, dating no doubt from the first establishment of the tabernacle 
worship. In regard to some there are the marks of an origin in a later circle of 
ideas and necessities than would be natural in the wilderness times. Those rules 
or precepts were handed down as a part of the traditional education of the priest- 
hood, and existed partly as oral directions, partly as more or less extensive written 
groups or codes of regulations and laws. ' ' While the first temple stood, ' ' says 
Driver, ' ' the traditional knowledge of the priestly class was embodied in practice, 
and we are not in a position to say how far their rules had been reduced to writing. 
Probably there was nothing to prevent changes and developments in matters of 
detail from taking place in the course of time." It is not impossible that Moses, 
the great founder of the nation, may have given to some of these laws the sanction 
of his authority. It w^as not the habit of the priest in precritical times to inquire 
closely into the authorship of what had come down to him as established and sacred. 
Custom soon hardened into obligation, and any precept w^hose lifetime ran back 
beyond the memory of man would be as a matter of course endowed with the pres- 
tige of that great name which had given such a mighty initial impulse to the 
nation's life. It was therefore the most natural thing in the world for a writer or 
redactor, in codifying the temple usages which had existed from time immemorial, 
to introduce each new topic or section with the recognized legal formula, ''And 
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying." 

The book of Leviticus may therefore be said to be Mosaic in that it is the literary 



INTRODUCTION ix 



precipitate of Moses' work and of its continuation through the priestly activity 
which took its rise from the Mosaic tabernacle system and fulfilled itself in the 
nation's religious life. 

The saner and more conservative of those modern critics who maintain the 
late date of the priestly legislation are careful to specify that this assertion applies 
only to its putting into final shape or codification. Thus Driver says : " The date 
of the redaction of the laws in Leviticus must be carefully distinguished from the 
dates of the laws themselves. . . Different hands have co-operated in codifying the 
usage and elaborating the theory of these sacrifices." " The various compilers or 
redactors did little more than reduce to a permanent form the legal and ceremonial 
tradition which had long been current in priestly circles. A special motive for 
preserving and codifying these traditions would be given by the destruction of the 
temple (586 b. c.) and the exile of the people. One of these writers, the compiler 
of the * Law of Holiness, ' cannot be separated very widely in time from Ezekiel, 
whether he wrote before or after that prophet (595-572 b. c). On the other hand, 
the account of the promulgation of Ezra's law in 444 b. c. determines the date by 
which Leviticus had received almost its present form." 

Of the five principal types of sacrifice whose ritual is instituted in Leviticus 
the first, or burnt offering, expressed self-dedication to Jehovah, with the mental 
result for the offerer of a sense of acceptance or atonement as the gift went up to 
God in the smoke of the altar. The meal offering was a voluntary gift to God 
analogous to what was used in ordinary life to produce an amicable understanding 
between parties. The peace offering was an expression of communion and recon- 
ciliation and was essentially a feast with Jehovah. The idea of expiation and 
restitution comes prominently forward in the sin offering and the guilt offering, 
which appear to be the characteristic creation of the law and of the state of cove- 
nant obligation which its promulgation implied. These offerings, at least the first 
three of them, are not to be thought of as projected on the nation by the book of 
Leviticus as a new thing nor the predominant task of the legislation as that of 
creating or fostering the habit of worshiping by sacrifice. Burnt offerings and gifts 
and peace offerings had been the spontaneous expressions of religious feeling from 
the earliest times. In all the ritual of these offerings, therefore, as it appears in 
Leviticus, the disposition of the offerer to bring his gift is taken for granted, nothing 
being prescribed as to the frequency or even as to the obligation of this species of 
worship. But a practice so spontaneous and luxuriant needed to be pruned and 
regulated, not only that it might be kept more orderly in its procedure but that 
the priests, by assuming control of it, might guard it from that tendency to alliance 
with the nature worships of the heathen, which was the characteristic temptation 
during the whole early religious history of Israel. 

It is possible that the motive for codifying and publishing these Levitical regula- 
tions — a motive which must have been something more urgent than the mere desire 
to prevent an ancient cultus from sinking into forgetfulness through disuse when the 
temple was destroyed — was the purpose to resist and neutralize those temptations 
to idolatry after their power and working had been felt in the destruction of the 
nation. The priest code would thus serve its purpose as the backbone of the post- 
exilic reformation. Full of the impressions which come to one on looking at the 



INTRODUCTION 



ceremonial legislation from this point of view, Schultz says : '' The sacrificial laws 
of the middle books of the Pentateuch seem like an earnestly intended restoration 
of old sacred forms which the religious life of Israel had in reality outgrown, like an 
attempt to express the antique faith, which had sprung from the soil of materialistic 
and mystic religion, in the mold of ethico-spiritual piety. These laws were full of 
significance as a preventive against Israel's sinking into the cult and magic of the 
highly developed paganism of that period." However this maybe, whether the 
legislation owes its present written existence to the purpose of re-establishing 
and re-enforcing old religious forms with a published legislative substance and 
sanction or to the necessity of pruning a redundant religious life in its earlier vital 
period by bringing it under the educated control of the priests, at all events the 
lurking temptation to idolatry was an objective point, and the intended result wns 
to resist that temptation among the laity by the superior attraction of a more 
exalted worship. 

The first step toward securing this object and the one which was represented as 
naturally following upon the rearing of the tabernacle and the setting-up of an 
altar, was to provide a daily burnt ofi'ering with its attendant meal and drink ofi'er- 
ings at the public expense (see Exod. 29 : 38-44). By this regular opportunity for 
worship presenting itself every morning and evening the ordinary impulse of the 
congregation to draw near to God by sacrificing might satisfy itself and the religious 
feeling which needed to be regulated might find vent in an orderly public service. 
This ordinance of daily burnt sacrifice is not directly laid down in Leviticus, but is 
implied as the constant term in the directions for worship given in that book. The 
fire on the altar was never to go out (Lev. 6 : 12). On its embers which were " upon 
the wood that is on the fire " the flesh of the voluntary sacrifices described in Le- 
viticus was to be consumed (Lev. 3:5; 4 : 35 ; 6:9, 12). Thus the burnt ofi'ering, 
which was the characteristic expression of the worshiper in his moments of greater 
elation, would tend to pass over entirely from a private sacrifice to a great public 
function in w^hich all the people might share. 

The seductive idolatrous tendencies of the peace ofi'ering w^ere not so easily 
resisted. This was a function which came nearer to the common life of the people, 
being indeed in all probability the primitive spontaneous form of religious ex- 
pression. It differed but little from an ordinary secular feast. Indeed, the slaugh- 
tering of domestic animals for food was and is to this day among the Arabs an act 
of religion. But the religious feeling which it carried was so little removed from 
the rejoicing of secular life that under an imperfect sense of the holiness of Jehovah 
it might easily degenerate into a fellowship with the unhallowed rejoicings of the 
pagan nature cults. The priestly legislation accordingly prescribed carefully the 
priest's share in all the peace offerings and forbade the secular use of the internal 
suet, while the law of holiness required all domestic animals that were slaughtered 
to be brought to the central sanctuary as an oblation to Jehovah. The irregular 
satyr worships of the woods, with their inevitable tendencies to impurity, were sternly 
prohibited. Thus the legislation undertook to regulate the luxuriant spontaneity of 
the people's worship by bringing it under the visible accountability of priestly rules. 

But the great achievement of the priestly legislation was the doctrine of expia- 
tion. This may be taken as the creation of the Mosaic law. While the lawgiver 



INTRODUCTION xi 



in Leviticus treats the first three types of sacrifice as voluntary off'erings, the impulse 
to which he finds already existing, he approaches the sin ofi'ering from another 
point of view. He specifies cases where the sin ofi'ering is required and, graduating 
the prescribed oblation according to the ability or theocratic rank of the sinner, 
whether it be anointed priest, the whole congregation, ruler, or private person, 
indicates the conditions on which atonement may be made for them by the priest. 
Only sins of error or ignorance are thus provided for, while the intentional or high- 
handed sinner may hope only for the sentence of being cut off" from the congregation. 

It is to be noted that in all the accounts of sacrifice in the patriarchal age, and 
also in the early history of the tribes in the promised land, it is always the burnt 
ofi'ering and the peace ofi'ering that are mentioned, and not the sin ofi'ering. In 
the Book of the Covenant too, which is accounted the earliest extant legislation of 
the Pentateuch, there is no recognition of this species of sacrifice (see Exod. 
20 : 24), nor is it mentioned in Deuteronomy. The burnt offerings and peace 
off'erings do not emphasize the element of expiation properly speaking. It is true, 
there is an element of atonement, an "odor of pleasantness, " in the burnt ofi'ering, 
but it is that atonement which consists in acquiring the sense of having pleased 
God, rather than that which arises from the sense of guilt done away. The pictur- 
esque Scripture language presents a reflex of the offerer's emotions in the formula, 
"The Lord smelled a sweet savor." It can hardly be held, therefore, that all sac- 
rifice had its origin in man's sense of alienation from God and his desire to avert 
divine wrath. The sense of guilt demanding expiation appears to be among the 
later developed religious impulses, rather than the primal feeling from which the 
practice of ofi'ering sacrifices arose. 

"By the law," says Paul, "is the knowledge of sin." As religion passed from 
domestic life into the domain of law, and from being a spontaneous impulse became 
an organized system of duty under the control of the priests, the principle of expi- 
ation began to enter into the sacrifices, so that finally the sin ofi'ering, though the 
last developed, becomes logically the first, or the preparation for the other off'er- 
ings. "The religious life of the community, as centering in the national sanctuary, 
had by means of these laws a definite and completed regulation which was honored 
and cherished as God's holy commandment. The intercourse of Israel with God 
in sacrifice gave to the nation the consciousness of a continual and ever-renewed 
communion of grace. Therefore the nation's most serious endeavor was by sin 
ofi'ering and purification immediately to make good every ritual error that might 
interrupt or render inefficient this intercourse and hinder the holy God in his com- 
munion with Israel (Lev. 15 : 31 ; Num. 19 : 17-20)" (Schultz). This extreme 
solicitude regarding the ritual fitness of the worshiper for communion with God 
wrought to raise expiation to a predominant importance in the sacrificial system, 
and issued not only in specific sin off'erings but in what Oehler calls an ^'ordinance 
of atonement, which is principally carried out in acts of worship specifically expi- 
atory, but which also runs through the whole of the rest of the worship ; in all 
parts of which, but especially by the use which is from this time forward made of 
the hlood of the sacrifice at the burnt and thank ofi'erings, the idea is expressed 
that man may never approach God without previous atonement, that this must be 
accomplished before he can expect that his gift will be favorably received by God.'* 



xii INTRODUCTION 



With this watchful holding to account of the Israelite's unwitting sins, and 
especially with its carefully elaborated restrictions as to uncleanness from foods, 
from contacts, and even from secretions that are accidental or in the course of 
nature, the whole tendency of Leviticus was to cultivate an apprehensive sense of 
sin and of the need of expiation. It is this which is expressed and developed by 
the priest-legislation. Through the sin offering and the regulations regarding cere- 
monial impurity there was a gradual leading of the whole idea of sacrifice into 
the region of expiation and purification. This constant requirement of expia- 
tion for even unintentional sins, this watchfulness against uncleanness and ritual 
unfitness which culminated even in an annual purging of the holy place with 
its sacred furniture, and the solemn sending away of the people's collective sin 
into forgetfulness, had the efiect of elevating the idea of expiation to a supreme 
significance in the theor}'- of sacrifice, so that this idea, with its accompanying 
assertion of the universal human need of atonement, becomes the basis of the 
Christian doctrine of salvation. 

This notion of sin as an expiable entity was from the nature of the case more 
physical than ethical ; and yet we should hesitate to call it on this account more 
primitive or less worthy of an advanced intelligence than the strictly ethical idea 
of transgression. It was another kind of idea, necessary perhaps to any radical 
treatment of sin as an accountable thing remaining as a stain on the soul even 
after the person had desisted from the specific act of wrong-doing. After the nation 
under the teaching of the prophets had attained the ethical insight to perceive that 
the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, there nevertheless clung to the 
religious consciousness, as a heritage of this priest-legislation, the idea of sin as a 
thing, an objective entity to be abhorred and put away ; and this idea, refined and 
elevated through the spirit of Christianity, has been of great and permanent value 
in the religious history of mankind. 

In estimating the influence of the book of Leviticus on the history of the 
people of Israel it is not wholly practicable to separate it from the entire priestly 
legislation of which it formed a part. "The peculiar arrangement of the legal por- 
tions, nay, their very divergence from one another, proves that law was for long a 
living thing, and that the codes are not resuscitated from the memories of priests 
or excogitated by scribes" (Egbertson). But it is to be remembered that while 
the priestly code was in a state of growth it existed mainlj'' as a terse and technical 
manual of ceremonial for the use of the priests, rather than as a book of exhorta- 
tion and guidance for the people. We should therefore not look so much for 
marked popular effect from the legislation until after the redaction and publication 
of the code as a part of a canon, or instrument of edification. But that the priests 
had a prescribed order from the earliest times, that the tabernacle at Shiloh became 
the center of worship only by virtue of its meeting the wants of the people with 
some recognized ritual, that its worship, and the ceremonial from its time forward, 
was invested with authority, seems to be clearly shown from the undisputed history 
of the period. It is true that some of the apparently unreproved practices of saintlj'" 
men, particularly in regard to worship in high places, are out of harmony with 
the fully developed priestly legislation which restricted legitimate sacrifice to the 
central sanctuary. It is true that the status of the priests and their relation to the 



INTRODUCTION xiii 



Levites does not seem to have been settled in the early monarchical and deutero- 
nomic period in strict consistency with the definition which it finally attained in the 
priest-code. It is true that the Sabbatic and jubilee year legislation, if it existed 
before the exile, existed only to be disregarded by the people. We must also not 
forget our task of accounting for the puzzling fact that Ezekiel carefully lays a new 
foundation in the latter part of his prophecy for a projected temple structure and 
ceremonial, just as if there were no completed building which had occupied the 
ground from the days of Moses. Nevertheless that the germs of the priest-code 
existed and were a living influence in those circles to which its legislation applied, 
in times long anterior to the prophets, though subject to growth and modification 
as the religious problems of the nation advanced in complexity, is a fact which 
must be evident from a careful and unprejudiced study of the history. 

The permanent impress of the book of Leviticus has naturally been the most 
marked in those portions of the legislation which concern personal and family life, 
and in regard to which assent could readily harden into ineradicable prejudice. 
Such are the regulations in respect to clean and unclean animals and to eating 
blood or animals that die a natural death, many of the precepts fostering a horror 
of ceremonial impurity, and the legislation regarding marriage within forbidden 
degrees of kinship. Many of these regulations are probably not original with the 
book of Leviticus, but reflect usages and scruples that come down from very early 
times. The habits and abhorrences commanded and fostered by the Mosaic legisla- 
tion in regard to clean and unclean meats still distinguish the Jews from other nations 
almost as broadly as their Sabbath ; and to those habits, considered in their sanitary 
aspect, is often attributed the remarkable vitality of the Jewish race. The dread 
of defilement fostered by the regulations regarding personal ceremonial purity came 
to associate itself and play in with the Jewish national and religious intolerance, 
so that by the time of Christ a Jew regarded himself as rendered unclean by merely 
entering a Gentile's house (Luke 7:6; John 18 : 28 ; Acts 10 : 29). From this feeling 
also, which in a proudly separate nation refined itself to a prejudice, among other 
details, against eating with "common" hands, were no doubt evolved, through 
rabbinic ingenuity, the laborious usages with respect to bathing and washing re- 
ferred to in the Gospels (Mark 7 : 1-6). As to the Levitical defining of degrees 
within which marriage is prohibited, this part of the legislation has not only re- 
mained valid for Jewish people, but it has so acquired the force of moral law as to 
be accepted as binding to a very considerable degree on the Gentile Christian con- 
science. In general it may be said that in proportion as the laws have been felt to 
be of universal human application and interest they have been accepted by all 
Christendom, not simply as positive Mosaic precepts but as expressions of the 
ideal humanity — the kingdom of God ; and some of the legislation of the law of 
holiness, notably in the nineteenth chapter, reaches a very high moral plane, so 
that indeed one of its precepts (19 : 18) is characterized by Christ and accepted by 
the church as a part of that fundamental revelation on which hang all the law and 
the prophets. 

The ordinance of the Sabbatic year and the year of jubilee, seeking as it did to 
establish a custom which could maintain its existence only as a general and public 
observance, seems to have failed to get itself enforced before the exile, if, indeed, 



xiv INTRODUCTION 



it became a part of the recognized law before that time. Like the legislation of 
idealists in general, it appears to have been beautiful as a scheme, but impracti- 
cable as a civil and public observance, because striking a keynote of unworldliness 
too high for the pubhc convenience or average devotion to follow. The Sabbatic 
year was entirely neglected by the nation during the whole period of the monarchy, 
and the captivity itself was accounted for by the idealists as the divine punishment 
for that neglect. It seems to have come into force as an observance only in the 
smaller priest-governed colony of the return, after the doctrinaires had got the 
upper hand. The year of the jubilee appears to have existed as a matter of reck- 
oning without ever being in any adequate way kept in practical life. 

The priestly regulations and theories as to sacrificial worship and ceremonial 
established themselves gradually in the citadel of the national conscience, and no 
doubt attained to greatly augmented binding force after the exile when the Jews in 
a measure came to despair of fulfilling their divine destiny as a nation and cen- 
tered their enthusiasm in the Jewish church. Under the regime of the second temple 
the ceremonial law and the priesthood became for the Jews who returned to Pales- 
tine the principal instrumentality for unifying the nation, and zeal for the purity of 
the temple and ritual again and again incited an angry people to bloody outbreaks, 
or nerved to acts of devotion and suffering worthy the name of martyrdom. Even 
for those of the dispersion the great annual pilgrimage feasts were a force that 
operated to turn their thoughts and often their footsteps to their native land, and 
to keep aglow in their hearts a passionate love for Zion. 

But, however the temple and its ritual may have served as a rallying point for 
patriotism — a focus at which the idea of Jehovah as the God of Israel was con- 
verged and intensified to the burning point — as an expression of the religious life 
of the people, the daily act of offering victims on the altar had probably ceased to 
be a primary and real act of worship even before the codification of the priestly 
regulations was complete. Sacrifice had become a secondary and symbolical act, 
no longer expressing directly the naive feelings of the worshiper, but enacting them 
as it were in a conventional and dramatized form. The intelligent worshiper, 
enlightened by the prophetic teaching, soon outgrew the thought that he was mak- 
ing a sweet savor for the nostrils of Jehovah, or bestowing on him an acceptable 
gift ; but the smoke of the sacrifice became a symbol of prayer, that act which, as 
the lifting up of the soul to God, could alone carry with it the whole intimate out- 
breathing of the spirit. While prayer is scarcely mentioned in the priestly legis- 
lation the whole ritual which it prescribes is nevertheless but enacted adoration and 
supplication, so that the temple to prophetic conception was to fulfill its intention 
by becoming a house of prayer for all peoples (Isa. 56 : 7), and this description of 
it was accepted by our Lord as the most characteristic and inclusive one (Matt. 21 : 
13 ; Mark 11 : 17 ; Luke 19 : 46). With the growth of the ethical and spiritual 
mind and needs the symbolical ritual was, for the private and inner life, replaced 
or fulfilled by the XoyiKr) ^arpeia, or service of the Word or Spirit, which demanded the 
whole earthly activity as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12 : 1), and thus the visible form 
was preparing itself to be done away, when the nation became finally scattered, 
without the destruction of all religion with it. Had it not been for the rejection of 
Christ, that momentous abortion of the Jewish religious evolution, perhaps the 



INTRODUCTION xv 



palingenesia of the nation might have been effected by a transfiguration in which 
the whole striving of the Mosaic and prophetic economies should be fulfilled and 
satisfied in the consummate life of Christ. But, on the contrary, it was ordained 
in the counsels of eternity that this should be only by a world-saving death, and 
accordingly, when Moses and Elias appeared with Jesus on the mountain, it was 
that they might talk with him of his decease which he should accomplish at Jeru- 
salem (Luke 9 : 31). By that death and rising again the whole world of believers 
is put in the way of attaining, through faith in Christ, a sonship to God, which is 
all that the deepest and truest Judaism strove for, raised to newness of life ; but the 
priestly Judaism which knew not the day of its visitation, but rejected the Anointed 
One who was its representative and end, still, as the great world example of arrested 
development in religion, awaits its resurrection to the life of the spirit. 

When the city of Jerusalem and the temple finally fell, then perforce the daily 
oblation ceased, and its stately ceremonial, going out with the nation, ceased to 
have a place in Jewish worship altogether. Yet the sacrificial system, which had 
already been pronounced by the Christian church old and nigh unto vanishing 
away, so far from falling to the ground and dying, rather attained its euthanasia, as 
it were, by paling like the stars in the light of the rising sun. The blood of bulls 
and goats had, even from Old Testament prophetic times, been felt to be valid for 
the taking away of sin only as a type or foreshadowing of some reality as yet unful- 
filled, and when the Lord Jesus died and rose from the dead. Christian thought 
began to recognize in him the actual and heavenly redeeming power to which all 
these types and symbols pointed forward. By a remarkable transformation the 
ordinances of the worldly sanctuary became sublimed in Christian thought into the 
doctrine of the greater or more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, through 
which Christ has come a high priest of the good things to come. According to the 
inspired speculations of the writer to the Hebrews the whole ceremonial law finds 
its fulfillment in the transcendent priesthood of Jesus Christ, who through the 
eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God once for all, and opened 
the way for every believer into the holy place through the veil, that is to say, his 
flesh. Thus, through the vivifying power of Christian faith the Levitical priest- 
hood and ceremonial as a system of types and shadows becomes fulfilled in Christ 
the eternal reality, and so attains to a transfigured existence or resurrection life in 
the salvation of the world. 

So the book of Leviticus becomes a permanent factor in the spiritual life of 
humanity in different ways, according to the nature of its various enactments, very 
much as the growth from the tree seed fulfills its destiny in divers manners in the 
life of nature and the uses of man. Some of it passes into unreasoned scruple and 
prejudice useful for maintaining the hardy integrity of personal and social habits, 
just as the tree growth hardens into woody fibre, which is durable and strong for the 
building's frame or vessel's ribs and keel. Some of it, as the Sabbatic year, attains 
little or no fruitful or reproductive life in man's obedience, but rather enriches his 
spiritual life from its own bed of death as a condemning reminder of his sin and 
failure, just as the leafage of the tree puts forth a beautiful growth, only to fall in 
the autumn and enrich the soil through its own decay for the growth of other 
seeds. Some of it, on the other hand, like the fully ripened fruit which attains its 



xvi INTRODUCTION 



intended destiny by becoming the seed of a new growth, passes into its larger life 
only by falling into the ground and dying as the shriveled seed of type and sym- 
bol, that it may rise to eternal life as the joyous new growth of fulfillment and 
actual salvation in Jesus Christ, the eternal high priest and atoning victim. And 
this last form of development, this career of death and resurrection, is that which 
alone really fulfills the creative idea of tree or of book, of all literature, indeed, and 
even of the divine Word made flesh. 

The interest of the book of Leviticus for modern readers is chiefly historical. 
As a specimen of ancient ceremonial jurisprudence, it supplies the student with 
data for the study of Israelitish institutions, yielding precise results for the under- 
standing of the development of the Jewish genius just in proportion to the pre- 
cision with which criticism succeeds in determining its chronological place in the 
history. As the record of a stadium in God's revelation to the world of his plan of 
salvation, it has always been of interest to those whose reading of the Bible is prin- 
cipally devotional, and whose piety feeds itself on admiration of God's wonderful 
counsels, and these humble worshipers, already sufiused and elated with the ador- 
ing joy of Christ's salvation, have found the old system of types and shadows won- 
derfully full of suggestion and edification on every page as they have read Christ 
in the Old Testament. It is as if the Saviour himself had taken them, and begin- 
ning at Moses and all the prophets had interpreted to them in all the Scriptures 
the things concerning himself. Yet even here the interest has been historical, for 
who that had the fully risen light would turn back to the faint foregleaming to 
study it by, except in a historian's spirit? Some of the glowing speculations and 
type-findings of these zealous expositors may here and there run to extremes, 
which to the unsympathetic are forced and fanciful, just as the Spirit-filled disci- 
ples at Pentecost seemed to some to be filled with new wine ; but all these methods 
of treating the divine word are simply the way in each case in which some order of 
mind derives and transmits edification from God's revelation of himself, and they 
kindle faith and devotion according as they find their audience. 

If we approach the book with such candid attention as it deserves, with perse- 
verance sufficient to discover the interest which lurks beneath its rather forbidding 
technical exterior, and with such powers of spiritual interpretation as belong to our 
order of mind, we shall find that it is not without its living worth and message even 
for this late day of the world's unfolding. 



LEVITICUS 



PAET FIKST. 



FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF SACRIFICE, PURIFICATION, 
AND ATONEMENT, CHAPTERS 1 TO 16. 



This collection of working formulas for wor- 
ship (SiKaioijotaTa Aarpeias, Heb. 9 : l)^ haS been 
called the ceremonial law, but it does not 
exactly answer in a theological sense to Paul's 
idea of law as he draws it out in its distinction 
from grace. The law was the expression of God's 
requirement, or standard of duty, and brought 
men into the presence of the God of judgment, 
while these forms of worship and atonement are 
a device for approaching the God of grace. The 
law forbade sin and brought it home to the con- 
science ; the ceremonial eased the conscience of 
its sense of sin by inducing a sense of pardon. 
The law, as Paul figures it in the Epistles to the 
Galatians and to the Romans, is calculated to 
drive men to Christ through the condemnation 
which it produces but cannot allay ; while the 
priest legislation leads to Christ by foreshadow- 
ing him, or serving as a type of his dispensation. 
Law proper fosters subjection and obligation; 
ceremonial makes for reconciliation and com- 
munion with God — it is in its way a kind of 
gospel or good news for the soul. 

This ritual may be taken as a formalizing of 
the instinct to seek and enjoy communion with 
God. And we may well believe that the feeling 
of God's grace or friendship was a much larger 
element in the religion of ancient Israel than 
the mere legal, factitious feeling of merit as a 
result of perfection of conduct. Indeed, Paul 
himself, though giving a large place in his 
argument to law in its stricter sense as the foil 
to his doctrine of free grace, nevertheless indi- 
cates that the religious life of the Old Testament 
time was primarily and essentially the large, 
rich growth of the promise to Abraham, while 
the law only entered in at the side {napeiari\eev, 
Rom. 5 : 2o) in order that "the offense might 
abound," and so the precise worth and applica- 
tion of divine grace to the individual might be 
apparent. That larger life of grace found a 
formal or ritual expression in the burnt and 
meal and peace offerings, or a ritual restoration 



B 



when impaired in the the atoning devices of the 
sin and guilt ofierings. 

This very externalizing, however, of the in- 
stinct for communion with God brought the act 
of worship down to a tangible form in which it 
could be grasped and debased by the legal spirit. 
Worship, whether in the form of sacrifice or in 
the more spiritual form of prayer, is in its 
nature a spontaneous reaching out toward God 
and can no more claim merit for itself than can 
the act of holding out the hand for alms. Yet 
when the form of worship is prescribed it forgets 
its essential spontaneity and becomes a work; 
the legal spirit is very prompt to debase it and 
cause the worshiper to engage in it as a meri- 
torious performance or an act of preeminent 
virtue. Thus participated in, it becomes by a 
sort of reversion, a part of the law by which the 
mechanical religionist hopes to win the favor of 
God. But this aspect of the ceremonial system 
as mere law does not belong to its original in- 
tention; the prescriptions for orderly worship 
are rather the guide-posts and encouragements 
in the way of grace. 

As moral law and the ritual of worship differ 
in their nature, so there is a difference in the 
way in which they are respectively done away 
in Christ, according to the exposition of Paul 
and of the writer to the Hebrews. According 
to Paul the law was added to intensify trans- 
gression (Gal. 3 : 19) by making prohibition defi- 
nite, or giving the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3 : 20) ; 
and thus the necessity for the provisions of grace 
through Christ was brought out, such grace 
being man's only hope of salvation. Thus the 
law becomes a pedagogue to lead to Christ 
(Gal. 3 : 21)^ and the glory of his gospel is that he 
makes men free from the curse of the laAV. Law 
thus drives the sinner to the gospel by its very 
contrast. 

On the other hand the ritual devices for atone- 
ment are never represented as intensifying con- 
demnation, but rather as producing an imperfect 

17 



18 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. I. 



and temporary alleviation of guilt (Heb. lo : i, seq.). 
They are done away in Christ as the stars pale 
before the sun ; they have eflected typically, or 
as a makeshift, what Christ eflfects perfectly ; 
and as types and shadows they are rejected in 
the presence of the substance or reality on 
account of their weakness and unprofitableness 
(Heb. 7 : 18), They thus lead to the gospel by 
their inadequacy as devices for the same expia- 
tory purpose. 

We call the atonement which was wrought 
through the blood of bulls and goats a type of 
the atonement wrought by Christ. In drawing 
out and insisting on the resemblances, however, 
between the type and the fulfillment, theologians 
have perhaps fallen into an error in supposing 
that the older sacrifice foreshadows Christ by 
its form rather than by its efi'ect on men. The 
typical sacrifice has been thought of as a sort of 
ritual enacting, by means of animal victims and 
purely for its predictive value, of what God was 
going to do for mankind in the future by means 
of a divine-human victim. As a result the type 
has insisted on dominating and narrowing our 
understanding of the fulfillment. Artificial and 
conventional as the removing of sin through the 
blood of slain victims necessarily is, the crude 
artificiality of the type has clung to the antitype, 
and dogma has been inclined to deny the benefits 
of the work of Christ to all except those who 
can receive him as a slain victim saving them 
by the sprinkling of his literal blood. 

But should we not rather say that the animal 
sacrifice typified Christ by its effect rather than 
by its form ? The principal use which the type 
subserved lay in its effect on the people of its 
own day. Consider what the people of the earlier 
time need to have done for them in advance of the 
coming of Christ. Do they need a ritual object- 
lesson to serve as a chart of the doctrinal mean- 
ing of some history to be enacted in the distant 
future ? Do they not rather need something to 
put them into a state of grace, or into the way 
of salvation, now ? Generation after generation 
will come upon the earth and die before the 
Redeemer will appear in the flesh : is there to 
be no possibility of salvation for the world 
meanwhile ? If mere moral law is what Paul 
says it is, men can derive from it only condemna- 
tion, for by the deeds of the law shall no flesh 
be justified. Is there no way by which men 
trembling under an awakened sense of sin may 
persuade themselves that God will forgive ? Is 
there no way to foster the sense of reconciliation 
and communion with God, as distinguished from 
the sense of shortcoming and guilt? If in all 



ages of the world salvation means peace with 
God or access to his grace, then there needed to 
be something, even before Christ came, which 
aimed at peace and reconciliation, and so gave 
the possibility of a life of spontaneous devotion. 

These expiatory contrivances were, for those 
who needed them, such a means of approach to 
God. God has always been a God of grace as 
well as a God of law. Those who have found 
and lived in that grace have been justified or 
saved. The great diflSculty has been to enable 
men who were awakened to the holiness of God 
to conceive of that grace as possible. Something 
that could stand for an appeasing of anger by 
means of a victim, or for a producing of satis- 
faction by means of a gift, has been to the mind 
a help in getting over the difficulties which its 
training or its perversity have placed in the 
way of free divine favor. If God must have a 
victim the ritual provides it, as the sinner feels, 
in a divinely ordained way. So when the priest 
sprinkled the blood and pronounced the atoning 
words there stole over the soul, temporarily at 
least, a sense of reconciliation and favor which 
was a real drawing near to the goodness of God. 
In its clumsy and shadowing way the ritual 
ministered the grace of God which bringeth 
salvation. 

Thus in its effect on the worshiper the slain 
victim was a type of Christ. The ritual was a 
ministration of grace. It served as a device for 
making men feel that they were no longer 
enemies of God. The type was given because it 
was needed for a real purpose, namely, present 
reconciliation. The manner in which the type 
produced this effect on its own age may not have 
been essential to the correspondence of the anti- 
type. It is sufficient that it foreshadowed Christ 
by doing imperfectly what he did perfectly and 
once for all. The ritual expiation foreshadowed 
the spiritual reconciliation in Christ by its effect 
rather than by its form. 

If, then, God gave a ritual in order to produce 
an effect for the time being, may we not say that 
the spiritual or eternal reality corresponding to 
that effect is all that is essential to Christ's ful- 
fillment of the ceremonial law ? It is true, the 
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches 
that Christ is for mankind what both priest and 
victim were to the Israelites — that he offered 
himself once for all to God, and that his blood 
cleanses the conscience from dead works to serve 
the living God. But does this mean that every 
one must understand Christ as a literal victim 
slain to appease or propitiate God, or only that 
those who have been brought up to feel such a 



Ch. I.] 



LEVITICUS 



19 



CHAPTER I. 



1 AND the Lord called unto Moses, and spake 
unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, 
saying, 



1 AND the Lord called unto Moses, and spake 
unto him out of the tent of meeting, saying. 



victim necessary will find all their demands met 
in Christ — that for those who must think of 
God's salvation in terms of victims and blood- 
sprinklings and washings there is the most 
abundant correspondence in Christ's death to 
every essential feature of the ritual ? In other 
words, this author's explanation of Christ's 
atonement by the Levitical ritual means that for 
the believer who needs it Christ may coincide 
with and satisfy all these forms of expiation, 
but not necessarily that he must present himself 
in these Levitical forms to every type of mind 
in order that his work may have its saving effect. 
As a matter of fact many minds experience the 
spiritual effect of the Saviour's work, that is, 
are brought into loving and trustful and fruitful 
communion with the God of grace, to whom the 
thought of a God who cannot save without first 
being appeased with blood is an utterly repug- 
nant one. No man fully understands the method 
of the Saviour's atonement, but if that ineffable 
life and character and death, however appre- 
hended, produces in the believer a loving and 
aspiring walk with God, all that is essential to 
the type is fulfilled in the antitype ; the Leviti- 
cal ceremonial as an expedient for access to the 
grace of God has found its fulfillment in the 
spiritual fellowship of the believer with God 
and with his Son Jesus Christ. 

I. Law of the five peincipal types op 
SACEiFiCE, 1 : 1 to 6 : 7. 

Chap. 1. 1. And the Lord called unto 
Moses. It is a part of the universal and eter- 
nal religious instinct to observe forms. The 
impulse to order and propriety is an essential 
element in religion. In this sense the eternal 
God speaks eternally through ceremonial. The 
particular form of ritual may change with the 
circumstances or needs or capabilities of the 
people. The whole system, as in this case, may 
pass out of use, but the spirit of ceremonial, as 
we may call it, is eternal and belongs to all re- 
ligion. As a recent author has said (Prof. Ed- 
Avard Slosson, in the " Independent" for March 
8, 1900) : " In reality the foundation of ritualism 
is not historical or theological but psychological. 
Any long-established religion develops uncon- 
sciously those particular rites that are best fitted 
for exciting religious emotion." The same 
writer goes on to remark: "One of the main 
objects of ecclesiastical forms is the development 
of a religious life by isolating it from common 



life. The set days and hours with which no 
other duty must interfere, the sanctified place 
or building where nothing profane is allowed to 
enter, the ecclesiastical architecture and fur- 
nishings, the archaic pronunciations and pecu- 
liar intonations, the vestments and music, the 
postures and movements, all these are associated 
with religious emotions and experiences and 
with nothing else, so that they have the power 
of reviving and instigating devotional feelings. 
If all one's religious training and experiences 
from childhood have been connected with cer- 
tain sights and sounds these will have an influ- 
ence over the emotional nature that is astonish- 
ing to one who has been otherwise trained. . . 
Rites arbitrary in origin become the language 
of the soul, so that if the power of these is lost it 
sometimes happens that all faith is lost too." If 
the observance of ceremonial becomes inimical 
to spiritual religion it is because it is insincere 
or imitative or no longer expresses the feeling of 
the worshiper, not because it is a form. Some 
form even the most spiritual will inevitably 
observe in approaching God ; some feeling that 
the merely natural or free and easy is not seemly 
in the divine presence will pervade even the 
most fervent and quietistic. Though it be no 
more than the adoption of the solemn style of 
speech or the uncovering of the head there will 
be some minimum of form which the mind will 
never outgrow. And this form, whatever its 
historical origin, will have for the mind the 
force of prescription ; the habitual will become 
sacred, so that that which is incongruous will 
cause pain or laughter and innovation will pro- 
duce a shock. In this sense, namely, as adapted 
to the permanent instincts of men, ceremonial 
religion is eternal. The Jehovah who spoke to 
Moses, bidding him make men's sacrifices or- 
derly, speaks as the eternal God to the deepest 
instincts of mankind through form and the 
striving after a higher or exclusively religious 
order and propriety. As a generalized or eter- 
nal truth this assertion that God spake thus 
teaches that the ritual feeling is of divine origin. 
The tabernacle of the congregation. 
In the Revised version this phrase is uniformly 
rendered tent of meeting, meaning not the place 
of assembly for the congregation but the place 
where the Lord was to be met. The literal ren- 
dering of the phrase is, tent of appointment. It 
referred to the tabernacle as a whole, as God's 



20 



LEVITICUS 



[Cii. I. 



2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the 
Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even 
of the herd, and of the flock. 



2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them. When any man of you offereth an obla- 
tion unto the Lord, ye shall offer your oblation 
of the cattle, even of the herd and of the flock. 



appointed place for manifesting himself — Jeho- 
vah's headquarters, as it were. It was here that 
Jehovah promised to meet and commune with 
Moses (Exod. 25 : 22) J and this revelation to 
Moses in Leviticus appears to be the fulfillment 
of that promise. Over this tent the cloud rested 
(Exod. 40 : zi) ^ and within it was the myste- 
rious glory which symbolized the presence of 
Jehovah (ibid., 35). As the law of the Ten 
Commandments was given from Mount Sinai 
(Exod. 19), so these priestly laws purport to 
have been given from the cloud after it had 
been transferred to its resting-place in the camp 
above the tent of meeting. 

These laws are stated to have been given in 
Mount Sinai, i. c, perhaps the wilderness of 

Sinai (see 7 : 38; 26 : 46; 27: 34). If they W^Cre 

given from the completed tabernacle it must 
have been some time between the first day of 
the first month (Exod. 40 : 2) of the second year 
of the exodus and the twentieth day of the 
second month (Num. 10 : 11) when the tabernacle 
and the congregation left the wilderness of 
Sinai for the desert of Paran. 

3. If any man of you bring. It is to be 
noticed that the custom of sacrifice is treated as 
an old and familiar thing. The function of the 
laAvgiver is regulative rather than creative ; it 
is to prescribe an orderly method for what peo- 
ple are in the habit of doing instead of to com- 
mand their practice de novo. Sacrifice had been 
common from the earliest times ; it was a spon- 
taneous form of religious expression. The effect 
of the book of Leviticus was to curb its extrava- 
gances, to bring its rules into such shape as to 
give the least encouragement to idolatry; in 
short, to place it under regulation by means of 
a ritual. An offering. This word, in He- 
brew, l^'^.P, Qdrbdn, is so characteristic of Le- 
viticus and Numbers that it may be taken as a 
sort of note of the class of conceptions with 
which these books predominantly deal. The 
word, outside of these two books, occurs only 
twice in Ezekiel (20:28; 40 : 43), and twice in 
a little different form in Nehemiah (10 : 34; 
13 : 31), in the latter book referring to the wood 
offering for the temple sacrifices. It means a 
gift and is so translated by the LXX, but it is 
a sacred gift, a gift that is brought near to God. 
The books of Leviticus and Numbers contain 
regulations for that department of human effort 
which seeks to give something directly to 



God, to send some token of good-will visibly to 
heaven. Material things can only in a conven- 
tional or constructive way be sent to God, and 
the method hit upon from the earliest times was 
to send the smoke or odor of the sacred object 
into the air. If the whole object was not thus 
sent to God, the memorial, or representative 
portion, at least, was burnt, and the remainder 
was set apart for the use of the priest. Objects 
thus set apart as well as the acts connected with 
the offering came to possess in the minds of the 
people a peculiar quality, the quality of being 
sacred, or separated from, and elevated above, 
the ordinary things of life. Hence arose that 
rigid distinction between the sacred and the 
secular, or the holy and the common, a distinc- 
tion which it was the cherished purpose of the 
priestly legislation to emphasize (see 10 : 10 ; Ezek. 
22 : 26 ; 42 : 20 ; 44 : 23). The act of Sending things 
by their smoke or savor directly to God even- 
tually became simply symbolical of the act of 
prayer, and as religion grew more spiritual the 
idea that the gift offering had any value in the 
sight of God ceased to commend itself to the 

prophetic mind (Ps- 51 : 16: 69 : 31; Isa. 1 : 11-13). 

It was as a house of prayer that the temple was 
appraised by the prophets (isa. 56 : 7). But as 
prayer takes the place of its symbol in public 
worship, the idea of giving a pleasing gift for 
God's enjoyment passes away. It is the draw- 
ing near of the whole person, the linking of 
human helplessness to divine might, of human 
frailty to divine mercy, that takes the place of 
the smug satisfaction of contributing to God's 
enjoyment, and that externalizing of prayer 
which arose from the thought of the act as meri- 
torious or pleasing in itself Avas stigmatized by 
our Lord as hypocritical (Matt. 6:5) and even hea- 
thenish (ibid., 7). On the same Pharisaic theory 
of the preeminent meritoriousness of public 
worship, the act of setting apart property for 
sacred uses, or making it Corban, came in 
process of time to be placed above plain moral 
duties, and was denounced by Christ (Mark 7 : u). 
The teachings of our Lord, indeed, and of the 
apostles, tended to replace the idea of giving 
directly to God by a better and more rational 
one (Matt. 25 : 4o), and to reveal to spiritual ap- 
prehension the principle that the distinction 
between the clean and the unclean, the holy 
and the common, is not a final or eternal truth 

(John 4 : 21-24 ; Eom. 14 : 14 ; 1 Tim. 4 : 4). 



Ch. I.] 



LEVITICUS 



21 



3 If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, 
let him offer a male without blemish : he shall offer 
it of his own voluntary will at the door of the taber- 
nacle of the congregation before the Lord. 

4 And he shall put his hand upon the head of the 
burnt offering ; and it shall be accepted for him to 
make atonement for him. 

5 And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord : 
and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, 
and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar 
that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congre- 
gation. 

6 And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it 
into his pieces. 



3 If his oblation be a burnt offering of the herd, 
he shall offer it a male without blemish • he shall 
offer it at the door of the tent of meeting, tha^ 

4 he may be accepted before the Lord. And he 
shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt 
offering ; and it shall be accepted for him to 

5 make atonement for him. And he shall kill the 
bullock before the Lord : and Aaron's sons, the 
priests, shall present the blood, and sprinkle the 
blood round about upon the altar that is at the 

6 door of the tent of meeting. And he shall flay 
the burnt offering, and cut it into its pieces. 



The peculiar form of the beginning of this 
clause in the Hebrew — "a man if," cf. "a soul 
if," 4 : 2, "a man or woman if," 13 : 29 — is 
pointed out by modern critics as one of the 
characteristic marks of style in the Priest- Code, 
or P., of which Leviticus largely consists, dis- 
tinguishing it from the earlier document JE., 
which forms a considerable portion of Genesis 
and Exodus. This theory of the documentary 
character of the Pentateuch assumes the non- 
Mosaic authorship of the books in their present 
form. The only profession made in the book 
(for the title does not belong to the original 
book), is that it was revealed to Moses in the 
wilderness of Sinai. It is possible for it to be 
substantially Mosaic, i. e., a following out of 
the spirit and intention of Moses, while still a 
collection and codification, made by later hands, 
of the great body of priestly teachings and work- 
ing formulas which had grown up during 
Israel's national history. 

The burnt offering. Three forms of burnt 
offering are specified: from the herd, i. e., of 
larger cattle (ver. 3-9) ^ from the flock, i. e., 
smaller cattle (ver. lo-is)^ and birds (ver. 14-17). 
The directions for these three kinds are pre- 
sented with only such difference of detail as is 
made necessary by the different natures of the 
animals. 3. Any offering of larger or smaller 
cattle must be a male without blemish ; the 
person is to offer it for Ms acceptance, not of 
his own voluntary will, before Jehovah. 
Cf. R. V. He is to place his hand on the head 
of the victim that it may be accepted for him. 
This placing the hands on the head of the ani- 
mal fostered and expressed the feeling that the 
offerer was thus identifying himself with his 
victim, and thus in reality offering himself to 
God, as is done in the consummate act of prayer 
which the rite symbolized. The offerer is next 
to kill the animal, i. e., perhaps, take some 
ostensible part in the killing that shall make it 
constructively his personal act, while no doubt 
leaving most of the work to the more practised 
Levites. The priests are to dash the blood on 
the altar round about. This dashing is a way 



of disposing of the blood in quantity, and differs 
from the sprinkling in 4 : 6, 17 ; 16 : 14, 15, etc., 
for which a different word is used, and which 
was done with the finger. The priests are then 
to flay the animal and divide it into pieces, to 
place the parts in an orderly manner on the altar, 
taking care to wash the inwards and legs, and 
then to burn the whole with fire. It is to be 
noted that in the case of sheep or goats the side 
of the altar on which they are to be killed is 
specified. This is the only passage that informs 
us where the offering was to be killed, though 
elsewhere it is specified that the sin and guilt 
offerings were to be slain in the same place (^ : 
•24:, 29, 33 ; 7 : 2). It is also to be notcd that in the 
case of birds the priest is to do the killing, and 
that the blood is apparently to be allowed to 
sprinkle itself as it is drained out at the side of 
the altar, and also that the crop with the 
feathers (not filth as in R. V., which is philo- 
logically inadmissible) is not to be burned but 
to be thrown out in the place of the ashes. 

The peculiarity in the form of the burnt offer- 
ing, distinguishing it from all other forms of 
sacrifice, is that it is wholly consumed on the 
altar, while in the case of the others only selected 
portions are burned. The main idea of the 
burnt offering, expressed by the offerer through 
the act of laying his hand on the victim's head, 
is the idea of self-dedication to Jehovah. The 
life of the victim was, as it were, presented to 
God. At the same time the thought of a propi- 
tiation, even in this form of sacrifice, is not 
wanting. 4. Note the expression. To make 
atonement for him. The theory of its ac- 
ceptability, reiterated in every separate case, is 
that it is an "odor of satisfaction" unto Je- 
hovah (comp. Gen. 8 : 21). The Hebrew word 
T'Dpn, Mqtlr, used for the act of burning, in 
connection with the sacrifices, does not empha- 
size the consuming of the thing burnt, as does 
the ordinary word, ^"l)^, sdr&ph (see e. g., * : 12), 
but rather means to cau^e to smoke or ascend, as 
if the primary aim was to furnish an agreeable 
odor for Jehovah's satisfaction. 

The broad, simple feeling which was fostered 



22 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. II. 



7 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put lire 
upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the 
fire: 

8 And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the 
parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood 
that is on the fire which is upon the altar : 

9 But his inwards und his legs shall he wash in 
water : and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to 
be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by tire, of a 
sweet savour unto the Lord. 

10 And if his offering be of the flocks, namely, of 
the sheep, or of the goats, for a burnt sacrifice ; he 
shall bring it a male without blemish. 

11 And he shall kill it on the side of the altar 
northward before the Lord : and the priests, Aaron's 
sous, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the 
altar. 

12 And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his 
head and his fat : and the priest shall lay them in 
order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon 
the altar : 

13 But he shall wash the inwards and the legs 
with water: and the priest shall bring il all, and 
burn it upon the altar : it is a burnt sacrifice, an 
offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the 
Lord. 

14 And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to 
the Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offer- 
ing of turtledoves, or of young pigeons. 

15 And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, 
and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar ; 
and the blood thereof Shall be wrung out at the 
side of the altar : 

16 And he shall pluck away his crop with his 
feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east 
part, by the place of the ashes : 

17 And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, 
but shall not divide it asunder : and the priest shall 
burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon 
the fire : it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by 
fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. 



7 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire 
upon the altar, and lay wood in order upon the 

8 fire : and Aaron's sons, tlie priests, shall lay the 
pieces, the head, and the fat, in order upon the 
wood that is on the fire which' is upon the altar : 

9 but its inwards and its legs shall he wash with 
water : and the ijriest shall burn the whole on 
the altar, for a burnt offering, an offering made 
by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. 

10 And if his oblation be of the flock, of the 
sheep, or of the goats, for a burnt ottering ; he 

11 shall offer it a male without blemish. And he 
shall kill it on the side of the altar northward 
before the Lord : and Aaron's sons, the priests, 
shall sprinkle its blood upon the altar round 

12 about. And he shall cut it into its pieces, with 
its head and its fat : and the priest shall lay them 
in order on the wood that is on the fire which is 

13 upon the altar : but the inwards and the legs 
shall he wash with water : and the priest shall 
offer the whole, and burn it upon the altar : it is 
a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a 
sweet savour unto the Lord. 

14 And if his oblation to the Lord be a burnt 
offering of fowls, then he shall offer his oblation 

15 of turtledoves, or of young pigeons. And the 
priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off 
its head, and burn it on the altar ; and the blood 
thereof shall be drained out on the side of the 

16 altar : and he shall take away its crop with the 
filth thereof, and cast it beside the altar on the 

17 east part, in the place of the ashes : and he shall 
rend it by the wings thereof, but shall not divide 
it asunder : and the priest shall burn it upon the 
altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire : it is 
a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a 
sweet savour unto the Lord, 



CHAPTEK II. 



1 AND when any will offer a meat offering unto 
the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour ; and he 
shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: 



1 AND when any one offereth an oblation of a 
meal offering unto the Lord, his oblation shall 
be of fine flour ; and he shall pour oil upon it, 



by this form of worship was the feeling that 
Jehovah was pleased with an offering of the 
self which was also a losing of the self in him. 
The whole victim was reduced to the volatile 
form of smoke or odor and ascended visibly to 
the skies. The immense effectiveness of this 
form of spectacular teaching was far more than 
an offset to any danger lurking in the notion 
that God derived an animal pleasure from the 
smell of smoke. That notion was sure to be felt 
to be only a fiction or emblem of a great spir- 
itual truth, while on the other hand the feeling 
that God is pleased with the heartfelt ascent to 
him of all that is most spiritual and aspiring in 
humanity would grow as intimacy with his 
kindness increased, and would derive new 
strength and vividness from each new clothing 
of the truth in the visibility of material sacrifice. 



Chap. 2. 1-10. The meal offering. The 
word which designated this offering is nnJ.D, 
mlnchdh, which means a gift, such, for instance, 
as Jacob brought to Esau to propitiate him 
(Gen. 32 : 13, 18), or the brethren of Joseph car- 



ried on their second visit to Egypt as a propi- 
tiatory gift to the governor (Gen. 43 : ii). In 
general the minchah was a gift from an inferior 
to a superior, a gift expressing homage. As a 
sacrifice the minchah is the antithesis of the 
n^T, zebhdch, or slain offering ; the minchahhe- 
ing in general the bloodless or meal offering. The 
two terms, zebhach and minchah, taken together, 
designate the two inclusive kinds of sacrifice, the 
animal or slain, and the vegetable or bloodless 
offerings, as in Ps. 40 : 6, "zebhach and min- 
chah thou hast no delight in" (see auo i sam. 
3 : 14). In the Law the minchah is generally 
treated as an accompaniment of the burnt offer- 
ing or peace offering, rather than as an inde- 
pendent sacrifice. It was an actual and useful 
present to the priests, only the memorial, or 
small part of it as representing the whole, being 
burned on the altar. Memorial, nn3TX, 'azkd- 
rdh, is a technical term and describes the of- 
fered portion as that which, as ascending di- 
rectly to heaven, brings the vrhole gift into 
remembrance before Jehovah. The rest of the 
offering was treated as most holy, i. e., most 



Ch. II.] 



LEVITICUS 



23 



2 And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests : 
and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour 
thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frank- 
incense thereof ; and the priest shall burn the 
memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord : 

3 And the remnant of the meat offering shall be 
Aaron's and his sons' : it is a thing most holy of the 
offerings of the Lord made by fire. 

4 And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offer- 
ing baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes 
of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers 
anointed with oil. 

5 And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in 
a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled 
with oil. 

6 Thou Shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil there- 
on : it is a meat offering. 

7 And if tliy oblation be a meat offering baken in 
the fryingpan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. 

8 And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is 
made of these things unto the Lord : and when it 
is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto 
the altar. 

9 And the priest shall take from the meat offer- 
ing a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the 
altar: it is an offering made by flre, of a sweet 
savour unto the Lord. 

10 And that which is left of the meat offering 
shall be Aaron's and his sons' : it is a thing most 
holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. 



2 and put frankincense thereon: and he shall 
bring it to Aaron's sons the priests : and he shall 
take thereout his handful of the fine flour thereof, 
and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense 
thereof ; and the priest shall burn it as the me- 
morial thereof upon the altar, an offering made 

3 by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord : and 
that which is left of the meal offering shall be 
Aaron's and his sons' : it is a thing most holy of 
the offerings of the Lord made by fire. 

4 And when thou offerest an oblation of a meal 
offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleav- 
ened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or un- 

5 leavened wafers anointed with oil. And if thy 
oblation be a meal offering of the baking pan, it 
shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with 

6 oil. Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil 

7 thereon : it is a meal offering. And if thy obla- 
tion be a meal offering of the frying pan, it shall 

8 be made of fine flour with oil. And thou shalt 
bring the meal offering that is made of these 
things unto the Lord : and it shall be presented 
unto the priest, and he shall bring it unto the 

9 altar. And the priest shall take up from the 
meal offering the memorial thereof, and shall 
burn it upon the altar : an offering made by fire, 

10 of a sweet savour unto the Lord. And that 
which is left of the meal offering shall be Aaron's 
and his sons' : it is a thing most holy of the 



exclusively set apart for the priests* use, or most 
sedulously protected from secular profanation. 
"Among the dues of the priests a distinction 
was made between the holy and the most holy 
offerings. The latter could be eaten only (1) 
by the priests, and (2) in a holy place, i. c, 
within the courts of the sanctuary. The former 
could be eaten by the priests and any members 
of their family or household, in any clean 
place. In both cases it was necessary for the 
person who partook of the gifts to be in a con- 
dition of ceremonial purity " (Driver). When 
the offering Avas of uncooked flour, or of parched 
grains of first-gathered corn, it was to be accom- 
panied by a small quantity of frankincense, 
which as a sacred substance was all to be taken 
for fumigation. 

The three forms of the winchah enumerated 
are : fine flour with frankincense (ver. i-s)^ cakes 
and wafers of fine flour (ver. 4-8), and parched 
grains of earliest harvested corn with frankin- 
cense (ver. 14-16). Of the cake offerings several 
varieties are mentioned, distinguished by the 
kind of utensil with which they are cooked, 
and designated as "minchah baked in the 
oven" (ver. 4)j " minchah on the pan" (ver. 5), 
and "minchah of the pot" (ver. i). The first 
kind of offering, that of uncooked fine flour, 
was the typical minchah, the other forms being 
perhaps the offering of the humbler class. It 
was this form of minchah with which the princes 
of the congregation accompanied their costly 
gifts at the dedication of the tabernacle (see Num. 
7 : 13, ai. ) . This uiicooked minchah belonged to 



all the priests (7 = lo), who were, however, to 
bake it without leaven and to eat it in the court 
of the tabernacle (6 = i6, iv) ; the cakes and wafers 
which were offered went to the particular priest 
who officiated (■? = 9). 

In its meaning the minchah differed from the 
burnt offering in that it was a present instead of 
the symbolical offering of the life. As a reason 
why the offered cakes should be broken in 
pieces and anointed so as to make a tempting 
display, as a host would set food before a guest, 
it is said, "It is a minchah," i. e., a present, 
such as that with which one propitiates a 
superior. At the same time it is more than a 
mere present ; there is the idea of consecration 
to God in it. The reason why the memorial of 
it is to be burned on the altar is, that it is a fire 
offering, an odor of satisfaction unto Jehovah 
(ver. 2, 9). " As the burnt offering represented 
the consecration of the life, the person, to God, 
so the meal offering represented the consecration 
of the fruit of his labors." This consecration was 
made vivid by the ascent of the azkarah or me- 
morial in smoke, and so prominent an element in 
worship was this offered sample of the gift that 
even in New Testament times the memorial 
was a familiar emblem, in religious feeling, of 
acceptability in the divine presence (Acts io:4). 

Minute study of the text of this section has not 
failed to notice the peculiar employment of the 
style of direct address abruptly beginning wntli 
the fourth verse and continuing through the 
chapter. It is impossible for us to account for 
this ; but not unreasonable is the note of Driver 



24 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. III. 



11 No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto 
the Lord, shall be made -with 'leaven : for ye shall 
burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of 
the Lord made by fire. 

12 As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall 
offer them unto the Lord : but they shall not be 
burnt on the altar for a sweet savour. 

13 And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt 
thou season with salt ; neither shalt thou suffer the 
salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from 
thy meat offering : with all thine offerings thou 
shalt offer salt. 

14 And if thou offer a meat offering of thy first- 
fruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for the meat 
offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried 
by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears. 

15 And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frank- 
incense thereon : it is a meat offering. 

16 And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, 
part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil 
thereof, with all the frankincense thereof : ii is an 
offering made by fire unto the Lord. 



11 offerings of the Lord made by fire. No meal offer- 
ing, w-hich ye shall offer unto the Lord, shall be 
made with leaven : for ye shall burn no leaven, 
nor any honey, as an off'ering made by fire unto 

12 the Lord. As an oblation of first/ruite ve shall 
offer them unto the Lord : but thev shall not 

13 come up for a sweet savour on the altar. And 
every oblation of thy meal offering shalt thou 
season with salt ; neither shalt thou suffer the 
salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking 
from thy meal offering : with all thine oblations 
thou shalt offer salt. 

14 And if thou offer a meal offering of firstfruits 
unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for the meal offer- 
ing of thy firstfruits corn in the ear parched with 

15 fire, bruised corn of the fresh ear. And thou 
shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense 

16 thereon : it is a meal offering. 'And the priest 
shall burn the memorial of it, part of the bruised 
corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all 
the frankincense thereof : it is an offering made 
by fire unto the Lord. 



CHAPTER III. 



1 AND if his oblation 6e a sacrifice of peace offer- 
ing, if he offer it of the herd ; whether it he a male 
or female, he shall offer it without blemish before 
the Lord. 

2 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his 
offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of 
the congregation : and Aaron's sons the priests 
shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. 



1 AND if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace of- 
ferings ; if he offer of the herd, whether male or 
female, he shall offer it without blemish before 

2 the Lord. And he shall lay his hand upon the 
head of his oblation, and lall it at the door of 
the tent of meeting : and Aaron's sons the priests 
shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round 



who says : ' ' The secotid person in 2 : 4-16, xmlike 
the rest of these chapters, is noticeable, and may- 
be an indication that the chapter is formed out of 
a combination of elements originally distinct." 

11-13. Regulations of the ininchah. Two 
general regulations of much importance in re- 
gard to the minchah are here made: the in- 
terdiction of leaven and honey from the fire 
offerings of Jehovah, and the invariable re- 
quirement of salt. Leaven is often spoken of as 

a symbol of corruption (Matt, le : 6 ; Mark 8 : 15 ; 1 

Cor. 5 : T, 8), and this association with corruption 
may be the basis of the interdiction. "\Miy 
honey was to be kept from the fire offerings of 
Jehovah we can only conjecture. It may be 
because of its tending to promote fermentation 
and decay in that with which it is mixed. 

Both of these substances, however, might be 
offered as first-fruits (see r. v. of ver. 12)^ but they 
were not to be burned as a part of the fire 
ofiering for an odor of satisfaction. 

As for the salt, this was to accompany not 
only the minchah, but animal offerings as well. 
Though not often mentioned in the legislation 
of the Pentateuch, salt was considered of great 

importance (Ezet. 43 : 24 : Mark 9 : 49, 50). It waS 

perhaps an ingredient of the incense (see Exod. so : 
35, R. v.), and according to the LXX of 24: 
7 was placed along with the frankincense on the 
Fhewbread which was the great public minchah. 
Its significance as a sacrificial s3Tnbol appears 
in the expression, the salt of the covenant 
of thy God, salt being mutually partaken of 



by contracting parties as a seal of a covenant 
because the partaking of one's salt laid upon the 
host, under Oriental laws of hospitality, the ob- 
ligation to keep faith with his guest (cf. Xum. is : 
19 ; 2 chron. 13 : 5). This allusion to salt indicates 
that there was another idea underlying the 
Ttiinchah, and indeed all the ofierings, which 
has not been so clearly brought out before, 
namely, that in offering sacrifices the worshiper 
incurred obligations like those of hospitality, 
and entered into a covenant with God intended 
to be inviolable. 

14-16. The minchah of first-fruits was not 
the same as the dedicatory offering of the first- 
fruits at the beginning of harvest. The lat- 
ter if made into loaves might be baked with 
leaven ; and whether in loaf or sheaf, no part 
of it was offered on the altar ( 23 : 10, 11, 17. 20) . This 
minchah, on the contrary, like the minchah of 
fine flour, was to be arranged in a manner sugges- 
tive of a meal set before a guest, and the memorial 
of it was to be burned, the remainder being most 
sacred to the use of the priest. It was to be of 
fresh ears of choicest cultivated com roasted and 
bruised into coarse grits. This was to be ac- 
companied by oil and frankincense ; and the 
"memorial " of the grain and oil, with all the 
frankincense, was burned as a fii'e offering, an 
odor of satisfaction unto Jehovah. 



Chap. 3. 1-5. The peace offering. The 
peace offering was the expression of thankful- 
ness and joy, and was in its meaning essentially 



Ch. III.] 



LEVITICUS 



25 



3 And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace 
offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord ; 
the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat 
that is upon the inwards, 

4 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on 
them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above 
the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away. 

5 And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar 
upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood 
that is on the fire : it is an offering made by fire, of 
a sweet savour unto the Lord. 

6 And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offer- 
ing unto the Lord be of the flock ; male or female, 
he shall offer it Avithout blemish. 

7 If he offer a lamb for his offering, then shall he 
offer it before the Lord. 

8 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his 
offering, and kill it before the tabernacle of the 
congregation : and Aaron's sons shall sprinkle the 
blood thereof round about upon the altar. 

9 And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace 
offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord ; 
the fat thereof, and the whole rump, it shall he 
take off hard by the backbone ; and the fat that 
covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon 
the inwards, 

10 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon 
them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above 
the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away. 



3 about. And he shall offer of the sacrifice of 
peace offerings an offering made by fire unto the 
Lord ; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all 

4 the fat that is upon the inwards, and the two 
kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by 
the loins, and the caul upon the liver, with the 

5 kidneys, shall he take away. And Aaron's sons 
shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt offer- 
ing, which is upon the wood that is on the fire : 
it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour 
unto the Lord. 

6 And if his oblation for a sacrifice of peace of- 
ferings unto the Lord be of the flock ; male or 

7 female, he shall offer it without blemish. If he 
offer a Iamb for his oblation, then shall he offer 

8 it before the Lord : and he shall lay his hand 
upon the head of his oblation, and kill it before 
the tent of meeting : and Aaron's sons shall 
sprinkle the blood thereof upon the altar round 

9 about. And he shall offer of the sacrifice of 
peace offerings an offering made by fire unto the 
Lord ; the fat thereof, the fat tail entire, he shall 
take it away hard by the backbone ; and the fat 
that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is 

10 upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the 
fat that is upon them, which is by the loins, and 
the caul upon the liver, with the kidneys, shall 



a feasting with Jehovah. It was the only sacri- 
fice of which the people were permitted to eat 
the flesh. Peace offerings and simple feasting 
often came to be practically synonymous in the 
minds of the people, so that the religious cere- 
mony could be participated in without any great 
withdrawing from the ordinary carelessness of 
life or any great solemnity of religious feeling. 
The strange woman in Proverbs (f = i*) even 
proposes to make her waiting peace offerings 
the occasion of a dissolute orgy. The intention, 
however, was to give a religious character to 
social festivities by associating them with the 
completeness of the divine reconciliation. The 
peace offering was usually the crowning or final 
act in a series of sacrifices in which burnt offer- 
ings or sin offerings first secured that reconcilia- 
tion of the soul with God. The offering might 
be either of a male or a female animal, provided 
only that it was perfect, and was to be either from 
the herd or a sheep or goat from the flock. 

The preliminary steps, the laying of the hand 
on the head of the victim, the killing of it at the 
door of the tent of meeting, the sprinkling of the 
blood by the priests, were the same as in the case 
of the burnt offering. But for the fire offering 
unto Jehovah use was made only of the suet 
in the interior of the animal and the kidneys. 
This internal fat was reserved for Jehovah, the 
same as the blood, and was never to be eaten (see 
ver. 16, 17). The formula descriptive of this Lord's 
portion is several times repeated and makes four 
specifications: (1) The fat that covereth 
the inwards (ver. 9), i. e., the large net of 
fatty tissue which stretches from the stomach 
or paunch over the bowels and completely en- 



velops the latter. (2) All the fat that is upon 
the inwards, entrails, i. e., the fat attached 
to the intestines, which could easily be peeled 
off. (3) The tw^o kidneys, and the fat 
that is upon them, which is by the loins 
(ver. 10) J t. e., upon the inner muscles of the 
loins or in the region of the kidneys. (4) The 
caul, lit., excess, upon the liver, i. e., the 
fat made visible on the removal of the lesser 
omentum, which commences at the division be- 
tweeen the right and left lobes of the liver and 
stretches on the one side across the stomach and 
on the other to the region of the kidneys. Hence 
the clause, Upon . • . the kidneys, i. e., by 
them, as far as it reaches, shall he take away. 

The latter clause of ver. 4 is unintelligible in 
the Authorized version as it is also in the Re- 
vised version unless we remove the comma after 
" kidneys." It means that the priest shall take 
away the liver-net on or by the kidneys in re- 
moving it from the animal. The Polychrome 
version translates, " Which mass he shall remove 
as far as the kidneys." 

" The four portions mentioned comprehended 
all the separable fat in the inside of the sacri- 
ficial animal . " It is to be burned upon the burnt 
offering which is on the wood which is on the 
fire. This seems to indicate that the peace of- 
fering is a secondary sacrifice which is hardly 
complete without a burnt offering preceding. 

6-11. The ritual for the offering of a sheep 
is the same as that for the offering of cattle with 
the addition that, besides the portions of fat 
mentioned in the first case, the fat tail, A. V., 
rump (ver. 9), is to be burned entire. This is 
a broad excrescence from which the true tail 



26 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. IV. 



11 And the priest shall burn it upon the altar : it 
is the food of the offering made by fire unto the 
Lord. 

12 And if his offering be a goat, then he shall ofEer 
it before the Lord. 

13 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of it, 
and kill it before the tabernacle of the congrega- 
tion : and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the 
blood thereof upon the altar round about. 

14 And he shall offer thereof his offering, even an 
offering made by fire unto the Lord ; the fat that 
covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon 
the inwards, 

15 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon 
them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above 
the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away. 

16 And the priest shall burn them upon the altar : 
it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet 
savour : all the fat is the Lord's. 

17 It shall be a perpetual statute for your genera- 
tions throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat 
neither fat nor blood. 



11 he take away. And the priest shall burn it upon 
the altar : it is the food of the offering made by 
fire unto the Lord. 

12 And if his oblation be a goat, then he shall 

13 offer it before the Lord : and he shall lay his hand 
upon the head of it, and kill it before the tent 
of meeting : and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle 
the blood thereof upon the altar round about, 

14 And he shall offer thereof his oblation, even an 
offering made by fire unto the Lord ; the fat that 
covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon 

15 the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat 
that is upon them, which is by the loins, and the 
caul upon the liver, with the kidneys, shall he 

16 take away. And the priest shall burn them upon 
the altar : it is the food of the offering made by 
fire, for a sweet savour : all the fat is the Lord's. 

17 It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your 
generations in all your dwellings, that ye shall 
eat neither fat nor blood. 



CHAPTER IV. 

1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, | 1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 



hangs down, sometimes weighing as much as 
fifteen pounds, and often seen upon the sheep at 
this day in Syria. It consists of a substance 
between marrow and fat. 

In ver. 11 the fat that is burned is called the 
bread of fire offering to Jehovah, i. e., food that 
reaches Jehovah by being burned or, as it were, 
etherealized. 

13-17. In the case of a goat the ritual is the 
same as with oxen or sheep. A significant ad- 
dition is made in ver. 16 that all the fat is the 
bread of fire offering to Jehovah for an odor of 
satisfaction. This designation of the offered fat 
as the bread or food of Jehovah, here and in 
ver. 11, points to the fact already stated that the 
sacrifice was essentially a feast in which a hos- 
pitable union was established between the ofierer 
and Jehovah. Schultz makes the peace offer- 
ing, as the one sacrifice in which the people 
partook of the victim, the original and funda- 
mental means of communion with Deity. " Sac- 
rifice, according to its most significant phe- 
nomenon, is a sacrificial meal at which the 
worshipers rejoice around the table of their 
God" ("Journal of Theology," Vol. IV., p. 
266). These naive notions of God's partaking 
of food, smelling a sweet savor, are notions 
which in their natural sense were perhaps al- 
ready outgrown when the Levitical law was 
codified, the terms being continued in use as an 
inheritance from the remote past. 

The last verse of the chapter is what is called 
an " ordinance of eternity," or a perpetual and 
universal statute intended to regulate not simply 
the sacrifices but the habits of private life 
(" throughout all your dwellings " ) that neither 
fat nor blood is to be eaten. This precept re- 
garding blood is elsewhere given as dating from 



the time of Noah (Gen. 9:4) ^ and both fat and 
blood are repeatedly prohibited as articles of 
food in the Pentateuch (see 7 : 23, 26; 17 : 10, U; 
Deut. 12 : 16). The fat forbidden did not include 
all kinds of fat, but simply this internal suet, 
called 2*7n, chelSbh, which was reserved for 
the fire ofierings of Jehovah. Other fat, called 
|DlJ/p, mlshmdn, might be eaten (see Neh. s : lo). 
Jehovah perhaps reserved to himself the fat as 
the chief part, the very blossom, as it were, of 
the animal's flesh. 



Chap. 4. 1, 2. The sin offering. It is to 
be observed that with the introduction of the sin 
ofiering a fresh start is made, as it were, in the 
Mosaic legislation. 1. This is indicated by the 
repetition of the formula. And the liOrd 
spake unto Moses. The legislation assumes 
a slightly different tone. In the case of the 
burnt offering and minchah and peace offering 
it was simply regulative in its form : " If any of 
you bring an offering" (i = 2), "If his offering 
be a burnt offering of the herd " (1 = 3)^ " of the 
flock" (1 : 10), or " of fowls" (1 : w), etc., let it 
be ofiered in a certain way. But now certain 
cases of unintentional sin are specified, and the 
offering is prescribed or required. It is no longer 
a voluntary or optional thing; it is rendered 
necessary by the sin committed. 

The sin for which a sin offering is prescribed 
is called sin in error, by which is meant mainly 
sins occasioned by ignorance, though as Keil 
supposes the term may include " all such sins as 
spring from the weakness of flesh and blood, as 
distinguished from sins committed with a high 
(elevated) hand, or in haughty, defiant rebel- 
lion against God and his commandments." The 
Hebrew conception of sin brought it into closer 



Ch. IV.] 



LEVITICUS 



27 



2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a 
soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the 
commandments of the Lord concerning things which 
ought not to be done, and shall do against any of 
them : 

3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according 
to the sin of the people ; then let him briug for his 
sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock with- 
out blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering. 

4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of 
the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord ; 
and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and 
kill the bullock before the Lord. 

5 And the priest that is anointed shall take of the 
bullock's blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of 
the congregation : 

6 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, 
and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the 
Lord, before the vail of the sanctuary. 

7 And the priest shall put some of the blood upon 
the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the 
Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the congrega- 
tion ; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at 
the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which 
is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 

8 And he shall take off from it all the fat of the 
bullock for the sin offering ; the fat that covereth 
the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, 



2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any 
one shall sin unwittingly, in any of the things 
which the Lord hath commanded not to be done, 

3 and shall do any one of them : if the anointed 
priest shall sin so as to bring guilt on the people ; 
then let him offer for his sin, which he hath 
sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto 

4 the Lord for a sin offering. And he shall bring 
the bullock unto the door of the tent of meeting 
before the Lord ; and he shall lay his hand upon 
the head of the bullock, and kill the bullock 

5 before the Lord. And the anointed priest shall 
take of the blood of the bullock, and bring it to 

6 the tent of meeting : and the priest shall dip his 
finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood 
seven times before the Lord, before the veil of 

7 the sanctuary. And the priest shall put of the 
blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet in- 
cense before the Lord, which is in the tent of 
meeting ; and all the blood of the bullock shall 
he pour out at the base of the altar of burnt of- 
fering, which is at the door of the tent of meet- 

8 ing. And all the fat of the bullock of the sin 
offering he shall take off from it ; the fat that 
covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is 



and more mechanical relation to positive pre- 
cepts than our more ethical and spiritual thought 
of it does. The natural intuition of right by 
which all may be condemned was less taken 
account of. 3. The sin is described as against 
any of the commandments of the Lord 
concerning things which ought not to be 
done. The congregation, or a ruler, or one of 
the common people might sin and not know of it 
until informed (see ver. u, 23, 28), the information 
undoubtedly consisting in the disclosure of the 
provisions of the law as applying to the case. 
The priest, on the other hand, is presumed to 
know the law, and his inadvertent sin is thought 
of as something which brings guilt upon the 
people, no doubt through carelessly leaving them 
ignorant of regulations by the transgression of 
which they have incurred guilt. All this gives 
far greater scope for mere ignorance as the occa- 
sion of sin, and less for weakness of flesh and 
blood, than our more intuitional and personal 
conception of the relation of the individual to 
God. As for " sin with a high hand," the abbre- 
viated ritual of the sin offering in Numbers 
prescribes especially that it is beyond the scope 
of atoning sacrifice (Num. i5 : 3o, 3i). The dis- 
tinction between the two kinds of sin is recog- 
nized in Ps. 19 : 12, 13 ; Heb. 10 : 26, 27. 

Four cases of unintentional sin are specified : 
that committed by (1) the anointed priest, i. e., 
the chief priest; (2) the whole people; (3) a 
ruler ; and (4) an ordinary Israelite. The grada- 
tion appears to be made according to the the- 
ocratic rank of the sinner. 

3-12. Sin of the anointed priest. The 
priest that is anointed means the high 



priest, so called on account of the completeness 
of his anointing at the time of his consecration. 
The anointing of the common priests also is 
commanded (Exod. 28: 4i; 40 : 15), and implied 
(Y : 36 ; 10 : 7), but the high priest was the one in 
whose case that ceremony was especially sig- 
nificant. Do sin according to the sin of 
the people, rather, so as to bring guilt on the 
people, as in R. V. In his influential position 
as a representative of the law of God, even an 
inadvertence on his part might be extensively 
harmful. 

The preliminary steps in the offering of this 
bullock for the sin offering were the same as in 
the case of the burnt offering. The principal 
difference was in the disposal of the blood. In 
this sin offering the blood was to be solemnly 
sprinkled seven times before the veil of the 
sanctuary, perhaps in token of the reinstate- 
ment of the endangered covenant with Jehovah, 
and also to be smeared on the horns of the altar 
of incense. In this chapter alone in Leviticus 
is the altar of incense mentioned. The seven-fold 
sprinkling was also prescribed in the case of the 
sin of the whole congregation, and also in the 
solemn expiatory sacrifices of the great Day of 
Atonement (chap. le). It has been noted by some 
that this sprinkling in the Holy Place is an 
addition to the sin offering as described in Exod. 
29 : 12 and Lev. 8 : 15 ; 9:9, and it is suggested 
that this chapter may represent a more advanced 
stage in the growth of the sacrificial system. 
"It appears doubtful," says Driver, "whether 
the author of the last-named chapters (viz., chap. 
8, 9) can have been familiar with the ritual of 

chap. 4" (see however on 8 ; 14-17). 



28 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. IV. 



9 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon 
them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above 
the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away, 

10 As it was taken off from the bullock of the 
sacrihce of peace offerings : and the priest shall 
burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering. 

11 And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, 
with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, 
and his dung, 

12 Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth 
•without the camp unto a clean place, where the 
ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood 
with fire : where the ashes are poured out shall he 
be burnt. 

13 And if the whole congregation of Israel sin 
through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the 
eyes of the assembly, and they have done somewhat 
against any of the commandments of the Lord con- 
cerning things which should not be done, and are 
guilty ; 

14 When the sin, which they have sinned against 
it, is known, then the congregation shall offer a 
young bullock for the sin, and bring him before 
the tabernacle of the congregation. 

15 And the elders of the congregation shall lay 
their hands upon the head of the bullock before 
the Lord : and the bullock shall be killed before 
the Lord. 

16 And the priest that is anointed shall bring of 
the bullock's blood to the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation : 

17 And the priest shall dip his finger in some of 
the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the 
Lord, even before the vail. 

18 And he shall put some of the blood upon the 
horns of the altar w^hich is before the Lord, that is 
in the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall 
pour out all the blood at the bottom of the altar of 
the burnt offering, which is at the door of the taber- 
nacle of the congregation. 

19 And he shall take all his fat from him, and 
burn it upon the altar. 

20 And he shall do with the bullock as he did 
with the bullock for a sin offering, so shall he do 
with this : and the priest shall make an atonement 
for them, and it shall be forgiven them. 

21 And he shall carry forth the bullock without 
the camp, and burn him as he burned the first bul- 
lock : it is a sin offering for the congregation. 



9 upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the 
fat that is upon them, which is by the loins, and 
the caul upon the liver, with the kidneys, shall 

10 he take away, as it is taken off from the ox of 
the sacritice'of peace offerings : and the priest 
shall burn them upon the altar of burnt offer- 

11 ing. And the skin of the bullock, and all its 
flesh, with its head, and with its legs, and its in- 

12 wards, and its dung, even the whole bullock 
shall he carry forth without the camp unto a 
clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and 
burn it on wood with fire : where the ashes are 
poured out shall it be burnt. 

13 And if the whole congregation of Israel shall 
err, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the 
assembly, and they have done any of the things 
wnich the Lord ha'th commanded not to be done, 

14 and are guilty ; when the sin wherein they have 
sinned !> known, then the assembly shall offer a 
young bullock for a sin offering, and bring it 

15 before the tent of meeting. And the elders of 
the congregation shall lay their hands upon the 
head of the bullock before the Lord : and the 

16 bullock shall be killed before the Lord. And 
the anointed priest shall bring of the blood of 

17 the bullock to the tent of meeting : and the priest 
shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle it 
seven times before the Lord, before the veil. 

18 And he shall ]ut of the blood upon the horns of 
the altar which is before the Lord, that is in the 
tent of meeting, and all the blood shall he pour 
out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, 
which is at the door of the tent of meeting. 

19 And all the fat thereof shall he take off from it, 

20 and burn it upon the altar. Thus shall he do 
with the bullock ; as he did with the bullock of 
the sin offering, so shall he do with this : and the 
priest shall make atonement for them, and they 

21 shall be forgiven. And he shall carry forth the 
bullock without the camp, and burn it as he 
burned the first bullock : it is the sin offering for 
the assembly. 



The rest of the blood, as not sacrificially sig- 
nificant, was to be poured out at the base of the 
altar of burnt offering. The internal fat was 
removed as in the case of the peace offering and 
burned upon the altar, while the skin and head, 
and in short all the animal with its refuse, was 
burned in a clean place without the camp in the 
place where the ashes were poured out. The 
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews finds in 
this burning without the camp a suggestive 
coincidence in connection with the fact that 
Jesus suffered outside the gate of Jerusalem 

(Heb. 13 : 11-13). 

13-21. Sin of the congregation. 13. Sin 
through ignorance, lit., err. And they 
have done somewhat, etc. This is much 
more simply and directly translated in the 
E.. V. It was in connection with such a sin as 
that described here that Saul erected his first 
altar (i Sam. 14 : 31-55). The sacrifice mentioned 
in that place, however, seems to be more in the 
nature of a peace offering, as the people were 



directed to eat, and to be prescribed more as an 
example of how cattle ought to be slaughtered 
and eaten than as a means of propitiation for 
sin committed. 

The ritual in the case of a sin of the whole 
congregation is the same as that for the sin of 
the anointed priest, except that here the elders 
of the congregation lay their hands on the head 
of the victim. 20. The formula, The priest 
shall make an atonement . . . and it 
shall he forgiven, recurs with all the sin 
oflerings except that for the high priest. In 
his case, being the party seeking reconciliation, 
it would be obviously impossible for him to pro- 
nounce his own absolution, nor did the law 
provide any one of higher theocratical rank who 
could make the atonement for him. He was the 
one in all Israel who must approach Jehovah 
directly, even for himself, and find his pardon 
in his own consciousness. 

The idea which lay at the root of the Hebrew 
ceremony of atonement was the idea of covering. 



Ch. IV.] 



LEVITICUS 



29 



22 When a ruler hath sinned, and done somewhat 
through ignorance against any of the command- 
ments of the Lord his God concerning things which 
should not be done, and is guilty ; 

23 Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to 
his knowledge ; he shall bring his offering, a kid of 
the goats, a male without blemish : 

24 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of 
the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the 
burnt offering before the Lord : it is a sin offering. 

25 And the priest shall take of the blood of the 
sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the 
horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour 
out his blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt 
ott'ering. 

26 And he shall burn all his fat upon the altar, 
as the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings : and 
the priest shall make an atonement for him as con- 
cerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him. 

27 And if any one of the common people sin 
through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against 
any of the commandments of the Lord concerning 
things which ought not to be done, and be guilty ; 

28 Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to 
his knowledge : then he shall bring his offering, a 
kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his 
sin which he hath sinned. 

29 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of 
the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the 
place of the burnt offering. 

30 And the priest shall take of the blood thereof 
with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the 
altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the 
blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. 

31 And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as 
the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace 
offerings ; and the priest shall burn it upon the altar 
for a sweet savour unto the Lord ; and the priest 
shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be 
forgiven him. 

32 And if he bring a lamb for a sin offering, he 
shall bring it a female without blemish. 

33 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of 
the sin offering, and slay it for a sin offering in the 
place where they kill the burnt offering. 

34 And the priest shall take of the blood of the 
sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the 
horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour 
out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar : 

35 And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as 
the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice 
of the peace offerings ; and the priest shall burn 
them upon the altar, according to the offerings m.ade 



22 When a ruler sinneth, and doeth unwittingly 
any one of all the things which the Lord his God 
hath commanded not to be done, and is guilty ; 

23 if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, be made 
known to him, he shall bring for his oblation a 

24 goat, a male without blemish ; and he shall lay 
his hand upon the head of the goat, and. kill it 
in the place where they kill the burnt offering 

25 before the Lord : it is a sin offering. And the 
priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering 
with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the 
altar of burnt offering, and the blood thereof 
shall he pour out at the base of the altar of burnt 

26 offering. And all the fat thereof shall he burn 
upon the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace 
offerings : and the priest shall make atonement 
for him as concerning his sin, and he shall be 
forgiven. 

27 And if any one of the common people sin un- 
wittingly, in doing any of the things which the 
Lord hath commanded not to be done, and be 

28 guilty ; if his sin, which he hath sinned, be made 
known to him, then he shall bring for his obla- 
tion a goat, a female without blemish, for his 

29 sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his 
hand upon the head of the sin offering, and kill 
the sin offering in the place of burnt offering. 

30 And the priest shall take of the blood thereof 
with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the 
altar of burnt offering, and all the blood thereof 

31 shall he pour out at the base of the altar. And 
all the fat thereof shall he take away, as the fat 
is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace of- 
ferings ; and the priest shall burn it upon the 
altar for a sweet savour unto the Lord ; and the 
priest shall make atonement for him, and he 
shall be forgiven. 

32 And if he bring a lamb as his oblation for a 
sin offering, he shall bring it a female without 

33 blemish. And he shall lay his hand upon the 
head of the sin offering, and kill it for a sin of- 
fering in the place where they kill the burnt 

34 offering. And the priest shall take of the blood 
of the sin offering with his finger, and put it 
upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, 
and all the blood thereof shall he pour out at 

35 the base of the altar : and all the fat thereof 
shall he take away, as the fat of the lamb is 
taken away from the sacrifice of peace offerings ; 
and the priest shall burn them on the altar, 
upon the offerings of the Lord made by fire: 



The blood placed on the thing to be purified, or 
sprinkled as a veil between the sinner and the 
Holy Place, was thought of as "covering" the 
sin, or expressing the fact that God no longer 
cared to look at or make account of it. 

32-2G. Sin of a ruler. 22. The ruler is 
the head of a tribe or of a division of a tribe 
(Num. 3 : 24, 30, 35), The ritual for the ruler differs 
from that for the high priest and for the whole 
congregation in several particulars. 23. The 
victim is not a bullock but a shaggy one of 
the goats, not kid of the goats, i. e., an 
old, hairy he-goat. There is no mention of 
sprinkling the blood seven times before the 
veil, and the blood is put upon the horns of the 
altar of burnt offering instead of the altar of 
incense. It is to be observed, morever, that 
nothing is said in this or the following case 
about burning the flesh and skin of the animal 
without the camp. From the prohibition iii 



6 : 30 we may infer that sin offerings of this 
kind, whose blood was not brought into the holy 
place, might be eaten by the priests, and from 
the incident related in 10 : 16-20 we should infer 
that this was expected of the priests. The 
shaggy goat is mentioned as the animal sacri- 
ficed as the sin offering for the princes of the 
tribes (Num. y), for the nation at the yearly festi- 
vals (16:9,15; 23:19; Num. 28:15, etc.), aud at the 

consecration of the priests (9 : 3, 15). 

27-35. Sin of the common people. The 
literal designation for one of the common 
people is one of the people of the land. His sin 
offering was to be either ( 1 ) a shaggy female of 
the goats (ver. 28) or (2) a ewe sheep (ver. 32). 
The ritual in both cases was the same as with 
the he-goat for the ruler. In ver. 35 it is said 
that the priest shall burn them ^^upon the fire 
ojferings of Jehovah," not according to, as 
in the text (see R. V). 



30 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. IV. 



by fire iiuto the Lord : and the priest shall make an 
atonement for his sin that he hath committed, and 
it shall be forgiven him. 



and the priest shall make atonement for him as 
touching his sin that he hath sinned, and he 
shall be forgiven. 



There is a somevrhat abbreviated ritual of the 
sin oflering both for the people and for individ- 
uals in Num. 15 : 22-31. There was also provided 
a water of separation, in which the virtues of 
the sin offering were, as it were, stored up for 
use in cases of defilement by the dead (Num. 19). 
This constant bringing of sin to account by 
means of prescribed offerings surrounded the 
people as a whole with a religion in which the 
thought of sin and of the need of reconciliation 
with God was a very important factor. 

As to the significance of the sin offering it 
can hardly be supposed that it bore for the peo- 
ple any such developed meaning as Christian 
thought, not to say ingenuity, has sometimes 
injected into it in connection with the death of 
Christ. As we look back upon these Old Testa- 
ment types we see them irradiated and glorified 
by the halo of Christian history and feeling 
through which we behold them and which has 
been so inspiring to us. But in order to esti- 
mate these foreshadowing institutions aright as 
revelations of God's truth — prepai-ations for 
Christ — we need to consider what they were to 
the people of their own time for whom this in- 
spiring history did not exist. Only the broadest 
and simplest religious feeling can be supposed 
to have been awakened or attempted in those 
early ordinances. 

In the first place, with what we call sin and 
guilt in the proper sense neither sin nor guilt 
offering had anything to do. " For the entire 
sphere of the inner life there exists no sacrifice. 
. . . Only 'if anyone sins through error ' is there 
a sacrifice for sins unconsciously and unintention- 
ally committed through human weakness and 
short-sightedness, where evil will — the actual 
center of sin — is missing." The victim can 
therefore hardly have been regarded as suffer- 
ing death as a punishment for the offerer's sin, 
since the mere sins of error for which alone an 
offering was admissible were not death-worthy 
sins. Nor does it seem probable that the flesh 
of a constructive criminal — for such would be a 
victim suffering capital punishment — should be 
regarded as most holy (6:29). The sprinkling 
of the blood rather than the requirement of* a 
vicarious death seems to have occasioned the 
necessity for a slain sacrifice, and even this was 
not so essential but that in some cases a blood- 
less minchah might be accepted as a sin offering 
(5 : 11 ) , The laying of the hands on the victim's 
head was an accepting of the animal as one's 



offering and, as in all kinds of sacrifice and con- 
secrations, a setting of it apart for purposes of 
cult, but not necessarily, any more than in the 
case of the burnt offering, a symbolical transfer 
of guilt. It is true this idea of transference of 
sin to a representative — not, however, with any 
notion of making the representative guilty — 
was acted upon in the ceremony of placing the 
people's sins on the live goal that he might carry 
them away to Azazel on the great Day of Atone- 
ment (16 :2i, 22). Not unfamiliar with Hebrew 
thought, moreover, was the notion of one per- 
son's suffering for another's sin (Exod. 32 : 32 ; isa. 
53 : 4), and in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah 
the vicarious suffering of the Servant of Jehovah 
is suggestively associated with the 'asham, or 
guilt offering, which, as will be seen in the next 
chapter, is only one variety of sin offering: 
" When his soul offers a guilt offering, he shall 
see seed, he shall prolong days, and the pleasure 
of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand" (isa. 53: 10). 
This idea of vicarious atonement, however, 
seems to have been the very highest flower of 
Old Testament thought, peculiar to the great 
evangelical prophet, and hardly understood even 
in New Testament times. It seems hardly pos- 
sible that the common sin offering should have 
intentionally been so framed as to portray the 
transfer of mere sins of error to a victim in such 
a way as to make it guilty of death. Such was 
the form of the ceremony, however, that when 
taken up into the luxuriant environment of a 
more developed future the notion of vicarious 
guilt and suffering would associate itself with 
the sin oflering as a not unnatural graft on such 
a stock. 

Sin and the divine holiness were both ideas 
which had to be touched and developed by the 
idealism of the prophets before they resembled 
the highly ethical notions which we inherit from 
centuries of Christian thought. The former was 
almost indistinguishably blended with ceremo- 
nial uncleanness, while the latter was at first 
thought of as like some awful electrical quality 
by which the unclean or unprepared person 
would be struck dead on coming into the Divine 
presence. In the sin offering, as in all animal 
sacrifices, the blood, as the sacramental means 
of uniting God in covenant with his people, be- 
came the medium for purifying or preparing 
the person for the presence of Jehovah. " The 
blood is the life. Blood must be withheld from 
all profane use and can only subserve sacred 



Ch. v.] 



LEVITICUS 



31 



CHAPTEE V. 



1 AND if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swear- 
ing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or 
known of it ; if he do not utter it, then he shall 
bear his iniquity. 

2 Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether 
it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of 
unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping 
things, and if it be hidden from him ; he also shall 
be unclean, and guilty. 

3 Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, what- 
soever uncleanness it he that a man shall be defiled 
withal, and it be hid from him ; when he knoweth 
of it, then he shall be guilty. 



1 AND if any one sin, in that he heareth the 
voice of adjuration, he being a witness, whether 
he hath seen or known, if he do not utter it, then 

2 he shall bear his iniquity : or if any one touch 
any unclean thing, whether it be the carcase of 
an unclean beast, or the carcase of unclean cat- 
tle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, 
and it be hidden from him, and he be unclean, 

3 then he shall be guilty : or if he touch the un- 
cleanness of man. whatsoever his uncleanness 
be wherewith he is unclean, and it be hid from 
him ; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be 



purposes of cult. In accordance with divine 
decree, blood shall ' cover ' man that God may 
not view his uncleanness." The simple mean- 
ing attaching to the whole offering may be 
summed up in the words of Schultz ("Ameri- 
can Journal of Theology," Vol. IV., p. 309) : 
"Sin offering is a purificatory rite (Lev. 12:8). 
The entire sacrifice consists in what at other 
offerings is only the preparatory part, namely, 
the * covering.' And it is this in a particularly 
intensive manner, since a defilement of physico- 
ethical nature is to be abolished, besides the 
general human uncleanness. The entire sacri- 
ficial course, including the eating of the sacrifi- 
cial flesh by the priest (10 : le f.) and the render- 
ing of the sacrificial cake (5 = 11) is purifying. 
Hence the real ground of purification is that 
God accepts the sacrifice and thereby enters into 
communion with the sinner, granting him actual 
pardon, and that man in this offering, enjoined 
by God as the embodied prayer of a penitent, 
expresses his confession, his regret, his petition 
for forgiveness. ' ' 

The sin offering became typical of the death 
of Christ, not by embodying and teaching all 
the details of doctrine which later ethical needs 
attached to that death, but by introducing the 
sinner to that simple all-regenerative feeling 
which constitutes the state of grace in all ages 
of the world, the feeling of sin confessed and 
accounted for, the feeling of divine forgiveness 
possible and actual, and of restored communion 
with Him who is of purer eyes than to behold 
iniquity. 

" The importance which the sin offering as- 
sumed among the Israelites is closely connected 
with the increasingly ethical character of the 
ideas associated with Jehovah's * holiness.' " 



Chap. 3. 1-13. Unintentional sin. Exam- 
ples are here given of unintentional sins requir- 
ing a sin offering, but sufficiently venial to 
admit of a graduation of the expense accord- 
ing to the ability of the offerer. This passage 
is of the nature of an appendix to chap. 4, and 



specifies some sins of omission or rashness on 
the part of the common Israelite which might 
easily be passed over as too venial for notice, 
and yet which in God's estimation need to be 
brought under the discipline of sacrifice in order 
that men may be trained to notice and avoid 
them. The first is the sin of keeping silent 
when one has knowledge of important facts 
which may clear up the truth in some case at 
law. He hears the voice of adjuration — the 
judge charging any that have knowledge in the 
case to make it known — ^but he does not declare 
what he knows. Of such a person it is said 
that he shall bear his iniquity, that is to 
say, he incurs guilt by his negligence, and this 
needs to be expiated by a sin offering. This is 
purely a case of civil transgression and bears no 
specific relation to " any of the commandments 
of the Lord concerning things which ought not 
to be done," like the cases in chap. 4. More 
particularly than the two following cases, which 
have a more obvious relation to religious purity 
or faithfulness, this kind of transgression needs 
to be defined as a case of ecclesiastical guilt, 
if it is to be brought under the discipline of the 
sin offering at all. 

The second sin mentioned is the uninten- 
tional contact with a dead animal or with the 
uncleanness of men. It is mentioned here, as 
it were, only in passing, and simply in order to 
specify when it became a case requiring and ad- 
mitting of a sin offering. It required a sin of- 
fering, i. e., involved guilt as distinguished from 
mere uncleanness, when it had been allowed to 
pass unnoticed until brought to the person's at- 
tention. The ordinary discipline, when the un- 
cleanness was attended to at the time it occurred, 
was simply ablution and isolation until evening 
(see 11 : 24-40) . The guilt incurred was so great that 
a sin offering was no longer admissible when 
the person in his uncleanness presumed to eat 
of the peace offering (see 7 : 21). This matter of 
uncleanness and purification was a very sig- 
nificant feature in Jewish religious practice, 
and is more fully treated in chap. 11-15. 



32 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. V. 



4 Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to 
do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man 
shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from 
him ; when he knoweth of it, then he shall he guilty 
in one of these. 

5 And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one 
of these thi7igs, that he shall confess that he hath 
sinned in that thing : 

6 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto 
the Lord for his sin which he hath sinned, a female 
from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a 
sin offering ; and the priest shall make an atone- 
ment for him concerning his sin. 

7 And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he 
shall bring for his trespass, which he hath com- 
mitted, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, 
unto the Lord ; one for a sin offering, and the other 
for a burnt offering. 

8 And he shall bring them unto the priest, who 
shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and 
wring off his head from his neck, but shall not 
divide it asunder : 

9 And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin 
offering upon the side of the altar ; and the rest of 
the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the 
altar : it is a sin offering. 

10 And he shall offer the second for a burnt of- 
fering, according to the manner: and the priest 
shall make an atonement for him for his sin which 
he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him. 

11 But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, 
or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall 



4 guilty : or if any one swear rashly with his lips 
to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a 
man shall utter rashly with an oath, and it be 
hid from him ; when he knoweth of it, then he 

5 shall be guilty in one of these things: and it 
shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these 
things, that he shall confess that wherein he hath 

6 sinned : and he shall bring his guilt offering unto 
the Lord for his sin which he hath sinned, a 
female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin 
offering ; and the priest shall make atonement 

7 for him as concerning his sin. And if his means 
suffice not for a lamb, then he shall bring his 
guilt offering for that wherein he hath sinned, 
two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the 
Lord ; one for a sin offering, and the other for a 

8 burnt offering. And he shall bring them unto 
the priest, who shall offer that which is for the 
sin offering first, and wring off its head from its 

9 neck, but shall not divide it asunder: and he 
shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering 
upon the side of the altar ; and the rest of the 
blood shall be drained out at the base of the 

10 altar : it is a sin offering. And he shall offer the 
second for a burnt offering, according to the or- 
dinance: and the priest shall make atonement 
for him as concerning his sin which he hath 
sinned, and he shall be forgiven. 

11 But if his means suffice not for two turtledoves, 
or two young pigeons, then he shall bring his ob- 
lation for that wherein he hath sinned, the tenth 



The third case is that of rashness in making 
vows or sworn promises : 4. If a soul swear, 
unto babbling, with his lips. Of course it is 
implied that the oath is not kept. The guilt is 
in the rashness: observe the R. V. in ver. 4 
where utter rashly is the term used instead of 
pronounce as in A. V. To do evil does 
not mean to do moral "wrong, but to do a thing 
•which is not to one's own advantage. The same 
Hebrew verb is used in Ps. 15 : 4, where the 
upright person is described as " He that sweareth 
to his own hurt and changeth not." It is al- 
lowed that this rash swearing may be hid from 
the person, i. e., that from an over-sanguine tem- 
perament or from negligence in reckoning his 
resources, he may overestimate his ability to per- 
form his vow. When his inability to keep his 
promise becomes manifest, he is not thereby ab- 
solved, but is in a state of guilt for his rashness, 
which requires expiation by means of the sin 
offering. 

The sins are to be confessed when the sin offer- 
ing is brought, an act which is not specifically 
mentioned in the preceding laws of the sin offer- 
ing. The oblation required, unless commuted 
on account of poverty, is the same as the sin offer- 
ing for one of the common people, namely, a 
female from the flock i. e., a ewe or a hairy 
female of the goats. In verse 6 the expression 
occurs that he shall bring his trespass, or 
guilt, offering unto the Lord. Notice, how- 
ever, that this passage goes on to say he shall 
bring it for a sin offering. This is not prop- 
erly the guilt offering, despite its peculiar fea- 



ture of specific confession, inasmuch as it lacks 
the essential mark of the guilt offering, namely, 
restitution. That new species of sacrifice is in- 
troduced in its order, as was also the sin offer- 
ing, by the formula, ** And the Lord spake 

unto Moses " (see ver. U). 

Up to this point there has been no hint of 
commutation in the sin offering on account of 
poverty. While the whole scheme of sin offer- 
ings is arranged in a descending scale, begin- 
ning with the anointed priest and including in 
its order the whole congregation, the ruler, the 
ordinary layman, the poor, the very poor, the 
classification in the fourth chapter seems to be 
according to the theocratic rank of the offerer, 
while in regard to these more venial sins the 
sacrifices prescribed range in magnitude accord- 
ing to pecuniary ability. In regard to these 
less serious sins, so important is it that some 
recognition be made of them that even the 
humblest transgressor is directed to make some 
atonement. 7. If he be not able to bring 
a lamb, lit., if his hand reach not to the suffi- 
ciency of a lamb, then he may bring two turtle- 
doves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering 
and the other for a burnt offering. The priest 
is to offer the sin offering first, pinching or 
wringing its head from its neck without divid- 
ing it asunder, and sprinkling a small portion 
of the blood upon the side of the altar, while 
the remainder is poured out at the base of the 
altar. Afterward the bird intended for the 
burnt offering is offered according to the fonnula 
already given. If the offerer is yet too poor to 



Ch. v.] 



LEVITICUS 



33 



bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of 
fine flour for a sin offering ; he shall put no oil upon 
it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon : 
for it is a sin offering. 

12 Then shall he bring it to the priest, and the 
priest shall take his handful of it, even a memorial 
thereof, and burn it on the altar, according to the 
offerings made by fire unto the Lord: it is a sin 
offering. 

13 And the priest shall make an atonement for 
him as touching his sin that he hath sinned in one 
of these, and it shall be forgiven him: and the 
remnant shall be the priest's, as a meat offering. 

14 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

15 If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through 
ignorance, in the holy things of the Lord ; then he 
shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord a ram 
without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estima- 
tion by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary, for a trespass offering : 

16 And he shall make amends for the harm that 
he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the 
fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest : and 
the priest shall make an atonement for him with 
the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be 
forgiven him. 



Eart of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering ; 
e shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put 
any frankincense tiiereon : for it is a sin oft'er- 

12 ing. And he shall bring it to the priest, and the 
priest shall take his handful of it as the memo- 
rial thereof, and burn it on the altar, upon the 
offerings of the Lord made by fire : it is a sin 

13 offering. And the priest shall make atonement 
for him as touching his sin that he hath sinned 
in any of these things, and he shall be forgiven : 
and the remnant shall be the priest's, as the meal 
offering. 

14 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

15 If any one commit a trespass, and sin unwit- 
tingly, in the holy things of the Lord ; then he 
shall bring his guilt offering unto the Lord, a 
ram without blemish out of the flock, according 
to thy estimation in silver by shekels, after tlie 

16 shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering : and 
he shall make restitution for that which he hath 
done amiss in the holy thing, and shall add the 
fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest: 
and the priest shall make atonement for him 
with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall 
be forgiven. 



bring the two turtle-doves or young pigeons, he 
is to bring a tenth part of an ephah, about five 
pints, of fine flour without oil or frankincense ; 
and the priest is to burn a handful for a memo- 
rial on the altar and keep the rest as a minchah. 
In each case the priest makes an atonement 
for the sin and the person is assured that it will 
be forgiven. 

The tendency of these regulations to foster in 
each individual the feeling of responsibility for 
the just disclosure of the truth, of dread of defile- 
ment, and of caution in the making of promises 
is worth pointing out. Indeed this whole salu- 
tary, yet merciful, system of sin and guilt ofier- 
ings was of immense value as a discipline. 

I. The guilt offering, 5 : 14 to 6 : 7. 
The present passage is occupied with the cases in 
which the. guilt ofiering is to be paid, while the 
ritual of the guilt ofiering is given in 7 : 1-7. 
The difference between the ideas underlying the 
sin offering and the guilt offering appears to be 
that " as the idea of the expiation of sin, which 
was embodied in the sprinkling of the blood, 
was most prominent in the sin offering, so the 
idea of satisfaction for the restoration of rights 
that had been violated or disturbed came into 
the foreground in the trespass (or guilt) offer- 
ing " (Keil). The following particulars may 
be noted: (1) The guilt offering was required 
in cases involving injury to some one — it might 
be Jehovah himself — in regard to property. (2) 
It was accompanied by a fine equal to the value 
of the property with the addition of a fifth. (3) 
the blood was disposed of as in the burnt offer- 
ing instead of being put on the horns of the al- 
tar (see 1 : 2). (4) The victim was a ram instead 
of a female sheep or goat. (5) There was no 
graduation of values to suit rank or ability of 



the offerer. "It is not always easy to distin- 
guish between cases where a guilt off'ering was 
given, and others where a sin offering was re- 
quired. Possibly a desire to cover all cases of 
offense against the holiness of Jehovah led to an 
extension of both offerings to cases where they 
would not originally have been demanded (cf. 
ver. 17-19, and 19 : 20-22). In 2 Kings 12 : 16 the D^J<, 
'dshdm, appears as a pecuniary fine ; in 1 Sam, 6 
it is a present sent back by the Philistines with 
the ark to make amends for the desecration done 
to it ; in the law of Num. 5 : 5-10, the term 'asham 
is applied to the property restored together with 
the fifth part added, while the victim is called 
the ram of atonement " (Deivee) . 

14-16. The first case requiring a guilt offer- 
ing is where the person commits a trespass — lit., 
treachery, or breach of trust — through negli- 
gence, in withholding something from the holy 
things of Jehovah. This /J^D, maal, or breach 
of faith, is a technical term in the priestly law, 
and refers generally to acts of faithlessness 
toward Jehovah. The holy things were the gifts, 
sacrifices, first fruits, tithes, etc., which consti- 
tuted the revenue of the priests. Such unfaithful- 
ness was an actual wronging of God in the person 
of his priests, and was to be made right by the 
restoration of the value of the property plus one- 
fifth. The guilt offering was a ram without 
blemish whose value was fixed by Closes as the 
magistrate, thy estiniation (ver. is) ; but pos- 
sibly the priest (cf. 27 : 12), the estimation being 
made in silver hy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary, i. e., perhaps the exact or official 
shekel. The translator in the Polychrome Bible 
makes this employment of the term shekels to 
indicate a minimum value, and mean " two 
shekels at least," 



34 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. VI. 



17 And if a soul sin, and commit any of these 
things which are forbidden to be done by the com- 
mandments of tlie Lord ; tlu^ugh he wist it not, yet 
is he guilty, and shidi bear liis iniquity. 

18 And he shall bring a ram witliout blemish out 
of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass of- 
fering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make 
an atonement for him concerning his ignorance 
wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be 
forgiven him. 

ly It is a trespass offering : he hath certainly tres- 
passed against the Lord. 



17 And if any one sin, and do any of the things 
which the Lord hath commanded not to be done ; 
ttiougli he knew it not, yet is he guilty, and shall 

18 bear his iniquity. And he shall bring a ram 
without blemish out of the flock, according to 
thy estimation, for a guilt offering, unto the 
priest: and the priest shall make atonement for 
him concerning the thing wherein he erred un- 
wittingly and knew it not, and he shall be for- 

19 given. It is a guilt offering: he is certainly 
guilty before the Lord. 



CHAPTER VI 



1 AND the Lord .spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the 
Lord, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was 
delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a 
thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his 
neighbour ; 

3 Or have found that which was lost, and lieth 
concerning it, and sweareth falsely ; in any of all 
these that a man doeth, sinning therein : 

4 Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and 
is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took 
violently away, or the thing which he hath deceit- 
fully gotten, or that which was delivered him to 
keep, or the lost thing which he found, 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 If any one sin, and commit a trespass against 
the Lord, and deal falsely with his neighbour in 
a matter of deposit, or of bargain, or of robbery, 

3 or have oppressed his neighbour ; or have found 
that which was lost, and deal falsely therein, 
and swear to a lie ; in any of all these that a 

4 man doeth, sinning therein : then it shall be, if 
he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall re- 
store that which he took by robbery, or the thing 
which he hath gotten by oppression, or the de- 
posit which was committed to him, or the lost 



17-19. These verses hardly describe a distinct 
case requiring a guilt offering, but are introduced 
in order to note with special emphasis that sins 
of the foregoing order, even though committed 
in ignorance of Jehovah's requirement, incur 
guilt. This is indicated by the unique double 
conditional with which the clause is introduced : 
17. And even if a soul sin, etc. ; lit., and if 
a soul if. The sin is described in the most 
general terms — just such terms indeed as are 
used in 4 : 27 — in order to reserve the emphasis 
for the succeeding statement, which is the only 
important statement in the paragraph, viz., that 
though the person transgressed a commandment 
and wist, knew, it not, he is certainly guilty, 
and must bring the ram to the priest. But that 
it is a guilt offering case, and so different from 
that in 4 : 27, is taken for granted. 

The first seven verses of chap. 6 in our English 
version really belong to this section on the guilt 
offering, and in the Hebrew are rightly placed 
at the end of chap. 5. The English division of 
chapters was adopted from the Septuagint. 



Chap. 6. 1-7. The offenses described in de- 
tail in this section really constitute the second or 
alternative case requiring a guilt offering; the 
"first (5 : 14-19) being treachery or breach of faith 
i n the holy things of Jehovah, Avhile this is breach 
of faith against Jehovah exemplified in wrong- 
ing one's neighbor. The identification of men's 
rights with Jehovah's rights is to be noted. The 
details cited as examples are: false dealing in 
the matter of a deposit, or of a pledge, or of rob- 
bery, or if one has oppressed his neighbor or 
found his lost property and deals falsely and 



swears to a lie. It seems as if these acts of vio- 
lence and treachery were passing beyond the 
limit of those sins of error and short-sightedness 
for which the system of sin and guilt offerings 
was provided, and were approaching perilously 
near to those high-handed offenses for which 
there could be no expiation. In estimating the 
magnitude of these offenses, however, something 
depends on our view of the relation of the sin to 
prevalent habits of thought. Men graduate the 
relative enormity of sins by different scales 
according to the social conditions and the mental 
habits in which they have been brought up. 
What is a weakness, a yielding to overwhelming 
temptation, in one epoch or state of society seems 
like the most deliberate and high-handed under- 
mining of the very foundations of order in an- 
other. With modern Occidental people, shaped 
in their mental structure by the long education 
of a commercialism the very foundation of whose 
large operations must be faith between men, such 
crimes as treachery and violence and false con- 
cealment of another's property seem so deliberate 
and determined that no temptation can be con- 
ceived of strong enough to excuse them. But to 
the Oriental, not so schooled to the importance 
of the commercial virtues, the temptations of 
avarice are more violent, and concealment and 
deceit are more of the nature of weaknesses. In 
the book of Proverbs the invitation of the disso- 
lute to the young man to " have a good time " — 
the snare by which the feet of unwary youth are 
entangled — is described as a temptation, not to 
the drowning of sorrow in the flowing bowl, but 
to a life of freebootery and treacherous violence 

(Prov. 1 : 10-16), 



Ch. VI.] 



LEVITICUS 



35 



5 Or all that about which he hath sworn falsely ; 
he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall 
add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto 
him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his 
trespass offering. 

6 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto 
the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the flock, 
with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto 
the priest : 

7 And the priest shall make an atonement for 
him before the Lord : and it shall be forgiven him 
for any thing of all that he hath done in trespass- 
ing therein. 

8 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

9 Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is 
the law of the burnt offering : It is the burnt offer- 
ing, because of the burning upon the altar all night 
unto the morning, and the hre of the altar shall be 
burning in it. 

10 And the priest shall put on his linen garment, 
and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, 
and take up the ashes which the fire hath con- 
sumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he 
shall put them beside the altar. 

11 And he shall put off his garments, and put on 
other garments, and carry forth the ashes without 
the camp unto a clean place. 

12 And the fire upon the altar shall be burning 
in it ; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall 
burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt 
offering in order upon it ; and he shall burn thereon 
the fat of the peace offerings. 

13 The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar ; 
it shall never go out. 



5 thing which he found, or any thing about which 
he hath sworn falsely ; he shall even restore it 
in full, and shall add'the fifth part more thereto : 
unto him to whom it appertaineth shall he give 

6 it, in the day of his being found guilty. And he 
shall bring his guilt ottering unto the Lord, a 
ram without blemish out of the flock, according 
to thy estimation, for a guilt offering, unto the 

7 priest: and the priest shall make atonement for 
him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven ; 
concerning whatsoever he doeth so as to be 
guilty thereby. 

8 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

9 Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is 
the law of the burnt offering : the burnt offering 
shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night 
unto the morning ; and the fire of the altar shall 

10 be kept burning thereon. And the priest shall 
put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches 
shall he put upon his flesh ; and he shall take 
up the ashes whereto the fire hath consumed 
the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put 

11 them beside the altar. And he shall put off his 
garments, and put on other garments, and carry 
forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean 

12 place. And the fire upon the altar shall be kept 
burning thereon, it shall not go out; and the 
priest shall burn wood on it every morning : and 
he shall lay the burnt offering in order upon it, 
and shall burn thereon the fat of the peace of- 

13 ferings. Fire shall be kept burning upon the 
altar continually ; it shall not go out. 



The offenses here described are all matters in 
which the extent of the wrong can readily be 
estimated ; and the commandment is that full 
restoration of property shall be made to the one 
to whom it belongs with the addition of the fifth, 
and then the ram shall be offered for the guilt 
offering as before. In Num. 5 : 5-10 it is pro- 
vided in addition that in case the person to 
whom restitution is due be dead and have no 
next of kin to perform the part of Go' el the money 
shall revert to the sanctuary. 

II. A MANUAL OF PRIESTLY DIRECTIONS, 

6 : 8 to 7. The regulations of this section are 
mostly characterized by the recurring introduc- 
tion, "This is the law of," and the same intro- 
duction is used when the laws are named in their 
order in the subscription at the end (7 = 37). 

8-13. 1. Regulations to he observed by the 
priest in sacrificing the burnt offering. The law 
of the burnt offering as found here does not refer 
to occasional offerings of individuals, as in 1 : 2, 
3, but to the perpetual burnt offering, which was 
to be kept lighted continually on the altar. This 
perpetual fire was the visible sign of the uninter- 
rupted worship of Jehovah, which ideally could 
not be suspended without unfaithfulness. Other 
ancient nations also kept perpetual fires burning 
on the altars of their principal gods. In ver. 9, 
instead of because of the burning, the trans- 
lation should be, on the hearth, as in R. V. Both 
ver. 9 and 10 are much more adequately trans- 
lated in the Revised version. 



Observe that the priest was not to approach 
the altar except in his sacred garments of linen. 
Those garments are described and this same 
regulation is made in Exod. 28. On the other 
hand these linen garments were not to be worn 
outside of the sanctuary, a regulation which is 
also made by Ezekiel (44 : i9). When the ashes 
were once removed from the altar they could 
be carried away by the priest in his ordinaiy 
clothes. 

According to the regulations given in Exod. 
29 : 38-42; Num. 28 : 3-8, the public burnt 
offering was to be rendered twice a day, morn- 
ing and evening. In the time of Ahaz the order 
seems to have been, a burnt offering in the morn- 
ing and a meal offering at evening (2 Kings le : 15). 
Perhaps the regulation in Exodus and Numbers 
indicates the custom which obtained at the time 
of the redaction of the priest code when a second 
burnt offering had been introduced. It is not 
known when the change was made. The fire of 
the burnt offering, which was to be renewed 
with wood every morning, was not only a per- 
petual symbol of Avorship before Jehovah, but it 
was the constantly ready public fire on which 
the fat of peace offerings was to be burnt, as 
these were brought and offered during the day. 
The basis of private worship seems to have been 
the act of feasting in token of communion with 
Jehovah, and for this act, which was constantly 
recurring with new worshiping parties, a priest 
would need to be in attendance all through the 



36 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. VI. 



14 And this is the law of the meat offering : the 
sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord, before 
the altar. 

15 And he shall take of it his handful, of the 
flour of the meat offering, and of the oil thereof, 
and all the frankincense which is upon the meat 
offering, and sliall burn it upon the altar /o?- a sweet 
savour, even the memorial of it, unto the Lord. 

16 And the remainder thereof shall Auron and his 
sons eat : with unleavened bread shall it be eaten 
in the holy place ; in the court of the tabernacle of 
the congregation they shall eat it. 

17 It shall not be baken with leaven. I have 
given it tuito them for their jx^rtion of my offerings 
made by fire ; it in most holy, as is the siu offering, 
and as the trespass offering.' 

18 All the males among the children of Aaron 
shall eat of it. It shall be a statute for ever in your 
generations concerning the offerings of the Lord 
made by fire: every one that toucheth them shall 
be holy. 

19 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

20 This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, 
which they shall offer unto the Lord in the day 
when he is'anointed ; the tenth part of an ephah of 
fine flour for a meat offering perpetual, half of it in 
tlie morning, and half thereof at night. 



14 And this is the law of the meal offering: the 
sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord, be- 

15 fore the altar. And he shall take up therefrom 
his handful, of the fine flour of the meal offer- 
ing, and of the oil thereof, and all the frankin- 
cense which is upon the meal offering, and shall 
burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour, as the 

16 memorial thereof, unto the Lord. And that 
which is left thereof shall Aaron and his sons 
eat: it shall be eaten without leaven in a holy 
place ; in the court of the tent of meeting they 

17 shall eat it. It shall not be baken with leaven. 
I have given it as their portion of my offerings 
made by fire ; it is most holy, as the sin offering, 

18 and as the guilt oft'ering. ' Every male among 
the children of Aaron shall eat of it, as a due 
for ever throughout your generations, from the 
offerings of the Lord made by fire : whosoever 
toucheth them shall be holy. 

19 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

20 This is the oblation of Aaron and of his sons, 
which they shall offer unto the Lord in the day 
when he is anointed ; the tenth part of an ephah 
of fine flour for a meal offering perpetually, half 
of it in the morning, and half thereof in the 



day. Thus the routine of the sanctuary was 
what corresponded to the function of the larger 
ritualistic churches in Christendom, namely, a 
general public service and the constant oppor- 
tunity for the exercise of private devotion. 

14-18. 2. Regulations to be observed by the 
priest in sacrificing the meal offering. This reg- 
ulation is applicable to all the viinchas or meal 
otTerings which individuals might bring to the 
sanctuary, though there was a daily public offer- 
ing of food (Exod. 29 : 40, 41 ) whicli furnished a reg- 
ular supply for the priests on duty. The burning 
of the memorial is the same for all vdnchahs, 
whether public or private, as in 2 : 2. By the 
regulation as to eating what remains after the 
taking out of the memorial handful is of course 
not meant that whenever a riiinchah is brought in 
the priests shall repair to the court of the taber- 
nacle and eat as a religious ceremony, but sim- 
ply that whatever ruinchah is offered goes into 
the stock from which the priests when on duty 
at the sanctuary shall be fed, and that this shall 
be cooked without leaven and eaten in the holy 
place. This was most sacredly set apart for the 
use of the priests, and all males of the priestly 
family, even though incapacitated by some 
physical blemish for public service, might par- 
take of it (21 : 22). 

So sacred was this food considered that a lay- 
man touching it became " holy" by the contact, 
so that he had to guard against defilement in 
the same manner as the sanctified priest (21 : 1-8), 
though without sharing in the priestly rights 
and prerogatives. This idea of holiness is 
strangely blended with that of uncleanness, 
which no doubt formed the basis of the Jewish 
notion of sin. " That is AoZy which has entered 



into so close a union with the Deity, and is so 
permeated by his majesty that it may no longer 
serve the pui-poses of ordinary life. That which 
divine powers have touched is unto the uncon- 
secrated person fatal and terrible, ' as if charged 
with electric forces' (W. Robertsox Smith). 
Whosoever touches it becomes ' holy,' i, e., falls 
under the ban. Whosoever sees God must die. 
Whosoever touches his holy ark, even if actu- 
ated by good and benevolent intentions, is 
smitten by a 'breaking forth of God.' There- 
fore David is afraid to receive it into his house. 
He does so only after becoming assured that 
God's will directs him to do it, and then accom- 
plishes its entry with extreme ritualistic pre- 
caution (2 Sam. 6 :4-18: cf. 1 Sam. 6 : 3 f.)." Both 

holiness and uncleanness "disqualify man for 
participation in the normal social life and sub- 
ject him to the ban in case of oversight. Thus 
there is naturally a frequent transition between 
both. Whosoever enters into contact with some- 
thing consecrated becomes holy. But at the 
same time he is unclean for daily life. Legal- 
istic Judaism of the very latest period still says 
that 'the canonical writings defile the hands,' 
i. e.. entail washings before other things maybe 
touched, while scriptures not holy do not have 
that effect" (Schultz). 

19-23. 3. The high priest's daily meal of- 
fering. The formula introducing this oblation 
(ver. 20) rcads as if it were the high priest's 
consecration offering, but it is evidently the 
offering which began to be rendered by each 
high priest on the completion of the days of 
his consecration and continued every evening 
and morning during his term of ofiice, as is indi- 
cated by Ecclus. 45 : 14. It was not offered in 



Ch. VII.] 



LEVITICUS 



37 



21 In a pan it shall be made with oil ; and when it 
is baken, thou shalt bring it in : and the baken 
pieces of the meat offering shalt thou offer for sl 
sweet savour unto the Lord. 

22 And the priest of his sons that is anointed in 
his stead shall offer it : it is a statute for ever unto 
the Lord ; it shall be wholly burnt. 

23 For every meat offering for the priest shall be 
wholly burnt: it shall not be eaten. 

21 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. 

25 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This 
is the law of the sin offering : In the place where 
the burnt offering is killed shall the sin ottering be 
killed before the Lord : it is most holy. 

26 The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it : 
in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of 
the tabernacle of the congregation. 

27 Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall 
be holy : and when there is sprinkled of the blood 
thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that 
whereon it was sprinkled in the hoiy place. 

28 But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden 
shall be broken : and if it be sodden in a brasen 
pot. it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water. 

29 All the males among the priests shall eat 
thereof : it is most holy. 

30 And no sin offering, whereof any of the blood 
is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation 
to reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten : 
it shall be burnt in the tire. 



21 evening. On a baking pan it shall be made with 
oil ; when it is soaked, thou shalt bring it in : in 
baken pieces shalt thou offer tlie meal offering 

22 for a sweet savour unto the Lord. And the 
anointed priest that shall be in his stead from 
among his sons shall offer it : by a statute for 
ever it shall be wholly burnt unto the Lord. 

23 And every meal ott'ering of the priest shall be 
wholly burnt: it shall not be eaten. 

24 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

25 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, Tliis 
is the law of the sin offering : in the place where 
the burnt offering is killed shall the sin olleiing 

26 be killed before the Lord : it is most holy. The 
priest that offereth it for sin sliall eat it : in a 
holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the 

27 tent of meeting. Whatsoever shall touch the 
flesh thereof shall be holy : and when there is 
sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any gar- 
ment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was spi-in- 

28 kled in a holy place. But the earthen vessel 
wherein it is sodden shall be broken : and if it 
be sodden in a brasen vessel, it shall be scoured, 

29 and rinsed in water. Every male among the 

30 priests shall eat thereof: it is most holy. And 
no sin offering, whereof any of the blood is 
brought into the tent of meeting to make atone- 
ment in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall 
be burnt with fire. 



CHAPTER VII. 



1 LIKEWISE this is the law of the trespass offer- 
ing : it is most holy. 

2 In the place where they kill the burnt offering 
shall they kill the trespass offering : and the blood 
thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the 
altar. 

3 And he shall offer of it all the fat thereof ; the 
rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards. 



1 AND this is the law of the guilt offering : it is 

2 most holy. In the place where they kill the 
burnt offering shall they kill the guilt offering : 
and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle upon 

3 the altar round about. And he shall offer of it 
all the fat thereof ; the fat tail, and the fat tliat 



the raw state, but was prepared after the man- 
ner of the minchah of pieces (2:6). The char- 
acteristic of this priest's offering was that it was 
not to be eaten, but to be wholly burnt, as an 
offering not now intended for the benefit of the 
priest or representative of God, as were the 
viinchahs of the laity, but expressing as an 
odor of pleasantness that priest's own devotion 
to God's service. 

24-30. 4. Regulations to he observed in sac- 
rificing the sin offering. This regulation, like 
that regarding the high priest's meal offering, is 
inserted with a new introductory formula, And 
the Lord spake, etc. The place Avhere the 
burnt offering is killed was the north side of 
the altar (i : n). The sin offering which was to 
be eaten was regarded as most holy, that is, its 
use was most rigidly restricted to the priests. At 
the same time to eat it w^as the priest's obliga- 
tion, not simply an optional privilege (lo : iv). 
That seems to have been the priest's way of 
"bearing the iniquity of the congregation," as 
if the sins of the people were thereby incorpo- 
rated into the priests wiio partook of the victim 
and so taken away by virtue of the sanctifying 
power of their office. 

Whatever blood may have been sprinkled 
upon a garment must be wg^shed out in the holy 



place, for it must not be carried out of the sanc- 
tuary to be mingled and confused with common 
things. The unglazed earthen vessels in which 
the holy flesh was boiled would absorb the juices 
and fat so that they could not be thorouglily 
cleansed of all traces of their contents — they 
must be broken. With brazen vessels the ut- 
most pains must be taken to remove every trace 
of the holy flesh that was boiled in them. 

The significant general regulation of this sec- 
tion is that no flesh whereof the blood is brought 
into the holy place is to be eaten. The blood 
was brought into the sanctuary in the case of 
the sin offering for the high priest (* •• 5-7), for 
the congregation (4 : le-is), and the sin offering 
on the Day of Atonement (^6 : 27), In these 
offerings the priests themselves shared as offer- 
ers, and, except in the case of peace offerings, no 
offerer partook of his own victim (comp. ver. 23). 
This final verse is thought by some critics to 
belong, like chap. 4, to a later revision of the 
priest code. 



Chap. 7. 1-7. 5. Ritital of the guilt offer- 
ing. The section devoted to the guilt offering 
(5 : 14 to 6 : 7) only defined the ca.ses in which the 
guilt offering was required, and specified that 
the victim in each was to be a ram. The ritual 



38 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. VII. 



4 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on 
them, which is by the flanks, and the caul that is 
above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take 
away : 

5 And the priest shall burn them upon the altar 
for an offering made by fire unto the Lord : it zs a 
trespass offering. 

6 Every male among the priests shall eat thereof : 
it shall be eaten in the holy place : it is most holy. 

7 As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering : 
there is one law for them : the priest that maketh 
atonement therewith shall have it. 

8 And the priest that offereth any man's burnt 
offering, even the priest shall have to himself the 
skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered. 

9 And all the meat offering that is baken in the 
oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and 
in the pan, shall be the priesfs that offereth it. 

10 And every meatoffering, mingled with oil, and 
dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much 
as "another. 

11 And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace 
offerings, which he shall offer unto the Lord. 

12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall 
offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened 
cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers 
anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of 
fine flour, fried. 

13 Besides the cakes, he shall offer /or his offering 
leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving 
of his peace offerings. 

14 And of it he shall offer one out of the whole 
oblation for an heave offering unto the Lord, and 



4l covereth the inwards, and the two kidneys, and 
the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, 
and the caul upon the liver, with the kidneys, 

5 shall he take away : and the priest shall burn 
them upon the altar for an offering made by fire 

6 unto the Lord : it is a guilt offering. Every male 
among the priests shall eat thereof : it shall be 

7 eaten in a holy place : it is most holy. As is the 
sin offering, so is the guilt offering : there is one 
law for them : the priest that maketh atonement 

8 therewith, he shall have it. And the priest that 
offereth any man's burnt offering, even the priest 
shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offer- 

9 ing which he hath offered. And every meal of- 
fering that is baken in the oven, and all that is 
dressed in the frying pan, and on the baking 

10 pan, shall be the priest's that offereth it. And 
every meal offering, mingled with oil, or dry, 
shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as well as 
another. 

11 And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace 
offerings, which one shall offer unto the Lord. 

12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he sliall 
offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleav- 
ened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened 
wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled 

13 with oil, of fine flour soaked. With cakes of 
leavened bread he shall offer his oblation with 
the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanks- 

14 giving. And of it he shall offer one out of each 
oblation for an heave offering unto the Lord ; it 



of that offering is given here. It coincides very 
closely with the ritual of the sin offering whose 
blood is not brought into the sanctuary, except 
for the difference in the animal sacrificed. As 
to the disposal of the ram, it is specified (ver. 7) 
that it is to belong to the particular priest who 
officiates. This gives occasion for the appendix 

(ver. 8-10) which folloWS. 

8-10. Appendix on the priests' share in the 
burnt and meal offerings. In the case of the 
burnt offering the skin is the perquisite of the 
officiating priest. A distinction is made in 
regard to the different kinds of meal offering. 
That which is brought already prepared as cakes, 
perhaps because such offerings were made only 
on special occasions and presented in quantities 
not too large for one man's consumption, goes to 
the priest who officiates ; while the larger and 
more regular offering of flour mingled with oil 
(chap. 2 : 1)^ or dry — 2 : 15, where it should read, 
"Thoushalt add oil to it," instead of "pour 
upon it" — is placed in a common stock for all 
the priests. 

11-21. 6. Of the species of peace offering, with 
the conditions to be observed by the worshiper in 
eating the flesh. The method of slaying the ani- 
mal for the peace offering and making that part 
of the sacrifice which is offered on the altar was 
prescribed in chap. 3. In the present passage 
we have the bloodless or pastry offering which 
accompanies the sacrifice, and the conditions, 
for the different species, to be observed in eating 
the flesh, Three different species of peace offer- 



ings are mentioned, the thanksgiving, the vow, 
and the voluntary or freewill offering. The 
first would be an act of Avorship and feasting 
commemorative of some special occasion for 
gratitude, the second would be the fulfillment 
of some obligation promised beforehand, and 
the third would be simply a spontaneous ex- 
pression of devotion. The peace offering for a 
thanksgiving is most fully described, the differ- 
ent kinds of oiled cakes being minutely specified. 
It is to be observed that leavened or ordinary 
bread accompanied the thanksgiving sacrifice 
(ver. 13), as the memorial of it was not burned on 
the altar like the minchah (2 : 9, cf. 11, 12). One 
loaf out of the whole offering was set apart as a 
nD1"ir^, t'rUmdh, for Jehovah, and appropriated 
to the use of the priest. This term, which is 
generally translated heave offering, literally 
means what is lifted off, the act contemplated 
being probably not the act of lifting up, or 
ceremonial raising toward God, as the mislead- 
ing translation heave offering would indicate, 
but simply the act of special setting apart or 
reserving. The term is thus applied to the 
contributions made for the tabernacle (Exod. 25 : 
2; 35 : 5, etc.) J to the cousecratcd portion of the 
spoil of the Midianites (Num. 31 : 41), to the land 
assigned to the priests (Ezek. 48 : 8-12), etc. 

This partaking of leavened bread before Je- 
hovah, as the accompaniment of thanksgiving 
for his blessings, seems like a bringing of com- 
mon life into relation to God in a manner cal- 
culated to neutralize and remedy the stiffness 



Ch. VII.] 



LEVITICUS 



39 



it shall be the priest's that sprinkleth the blood of 
the peace offerings. 

15 And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace of- 
ferings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same 
day that it is offered ; he shall not leave any of it 
until the morning. 

16 But if the sacrifice of his offering he a vow, or 
a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day 
that he offereth his sacrifice : and on the morrow 
also the remainder of it shall be eaten : 

17 But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice 
on the third day shall be burnt with fire. 

18 And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his 
peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it 
shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed 
unto him that oft'ereth it: it shall be an abomina- 
tion, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his 
iniquity. 

19 And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing 
shall not be eaten ; it shall be burnt with fire: and 
as for the flesh, all that be olea-n shall eat thereof. 

20 But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sac- 
rifice of peace offerings, that per^am unto the Lord, 
having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul 
shall be cut off from his people. 

21 Moreover the soul that shall touch any un- 
clean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any un- 
clean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and 
eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, 
-vvhich. pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall 
be cut off from his people. 

22 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

23 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye 
shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of 
goat. 

24 And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, 
and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may 
be used in any other use : but ye shall in no wise 
eat of it. 

25 For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of 
which men offer an offering made by fire unto the 
Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off 
from his people. 

26 Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, 
whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your 
dwellings. 



shall be the priest's that sprinkleth the blood of 

15 the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacri- 
fice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving siiall 
be eaten on the day of his oblation ; he shall not 

16 leave any of it until the morning. But if the 
sacrifice of his oblation be a vow, or a freewill 
offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he of- 
fereth his sacrifice : and on the morrow that 

17 which remaineth of it shall be eaten : but that 
which remaineth of the flesh of the sacrifice on 

18 the third day shall be burnt with fire. And if 
any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace of- 
ferings be eaten on the third day, it shall not be 
accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him 
that offereth it : it shall be an abomination, and 
the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity. 

19 And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing 
shall not be eaten ; it shall be burnt with fire. 
And as for the flesh, everyone that is clean shall 

20 eat thereof : but the soul that eateth of the flesh 
of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain 
unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, 

21 that soul shall be cut off from his people. And 
when any one shall touch any unclean thing, 
the uncleanness of man, or an unclean beast, or 
any unclean abomination, and eat of the flesh 
of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain 
unto the Lord, that soul shall be cut off from his 
people. 

22 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

23 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying. Ye 

24 shall eat no fat, of ox, or sheep, or goat. And 
the fat of that which dieth of itself, and the fat 
of that which is torn of beasts, may be used for 
any other service : but ye shall in no wise eat of 

25 it. For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of 
which men offer an offering made by fire unto 
the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be 

26 cut off from his people. And ye shall eat no 
manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of 



and uneasy dread which the primitive sense of his 
awful sanctity would tend to fasten on the mind. 
That the divine holiness, however important to 
be kept in view, was not unfriendly to the 
common enjoyment of life, was a truth which 
this priest-legislation did not ignore. 

As to the time during which the flesh was to be 
eaten, in the case of the thanksgiving offering, it 
was to be the same day ; for a vow or a voluntary 
offering the time during M'hich it might be eaten 
was extended one day. In no case, however, 
was it to be kept till the third day, but it was to 
be consumed with fire. The person who ate of 
it the third day acquired thereby no acceptance 
with God, but on the contrary incurred guilt. 
The flesh thus remaining over became 7lJD, jp^g- 
gul ox refuse (ver. is)^ a term which ought not 
to be confounded with "detestable thing," or 
"abomination," as is done in our Authorized 
and Revised versions, but which is technically 
appropriated to stale or overtime flesh of the 
sacrifice. 

Any sacrificial flesh that had touched anything 
unclean was to be burned with fire, Very strict 



regulations were made in regard to eating the 
meat while one was in a state of uncleanness. 
The soul that overstepped the regulations was 
to be cut off from his people, i. e., deprived of 
the privileges of the covenant and made an 
outlaw. The scrupulousness which this law 
reflects and formulates is suggestively referred 
to as a familiar feeling in the earlier days of the 
monarchy (i Sam. 20 : 26)^ and is no doubt an 
inheritance from the earliest times. 

22-27. 7. Fat and blood not to be eaten. The 
remainder of the instructions of this chapter are 
addressed to the people. This prohibition of the 
eating of fat and blood is more succinctly given 
in 3 : 17. The ground of the prohibition in 
regard to the fat, i. e., JlT\, chelSbh, or suet (see on 
3 : 17), is that this was a gift sanctified to Jehovah, 
and thus the eating was the invasion of his right. 
The x^rohibition, therefore, particularly specifies 
the fat of such beasts as are offered a fire offering 
to Jehovah, and probably does not include such 
animals as were allowed for food, like the stag 
and antelope, but were not sacrificed. As for 
that which died of itself or was torn of beasts, 



40 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. vn. 



27 Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner 
of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his 
people. 

28 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

29 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying. He 
that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto 
the Lord shall bring his oblation unto the Lord of 
the sacrifice of his peace offerings. 

30 His own hands shall bring the offerings of the 
Lord made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall 
he bring, that the breast may be waved /o/- a wave 
offering before the Lord. 

31 And the priest shall burn the fat upon the 
altar : but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'. 

32 And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the 
priest /or an heave offering of the sacrifices of your 
peace offerings. 

33 He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the 
blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have 
the right shoulder for his part. 

34 For the wave breast and the heave shoulder 
have I taken of the children of Israel from off the 
sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given 
them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a 
statute for ever from among the children of Israel. 

85 This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, 
and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offer- 
ings of the Lord made by fire, in the day u-hen he 
presented them to minister unto the Lord in the 
priest's office ; 

36 Which the Lord commanded to be given them 
of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed 
them, by a statute for ever throughout their gen- 
erations. 

37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the 
meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the 
trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of 
the sacrifice of the peace offerings ; 



27 beast, in any of your dwellings. Whosoever it 
be that eateth any blood, that soul shall be cut 
off from his people. 

28 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

29 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying. He 
that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings 
unto the Lord shall bring his oblation unto the 
Lord out of the sacrifice of his peace offerings : 

30 his own hands shall bring the offerings of the 
Lord made by fire ; the fat with the breast shall 
he bring, that the breast may be waved for a 

31 wave offering before the Lord. And the priest 
shall burn the fat upon the altar : but the breast 

32 shall be Aaron's and his sons'. And the right 
thigh shall ye give unto the priest for an heave 
offering out of the sacrifices of your peace offer- 

33 ings. He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth 
the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, 

34 shall have the right thigh for a portion. For the 
wave breast and the heave thigh have I taken 
of the children of Israel out of the sacrifices of 
their peace offerings, and have given them unto 
Aaron the priest and unto his sons as a due for 
ever from the children of Israel. 

35 This is the anointing-portion of Aaron, and 
the anointing-portion of his sons, out of the of- 
ferings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when 
he presented them to minister unto the Lord in 

36 the priest's office ; which the Lord commanded 
to be given them of the children of Israel, in the 
day that he anointed them. It is a due for ever 

37 throughout their generations. This is the law 
of the burnt offering, of the meal offering, and 
of the sin offering, and of the guilt offering, and 
of the consecration, and of the sacrifice of peace 



the reason for not eating the flesh itself would 
abundantly suffice for not eating the fat, namely, 
that it defiled the eater. The prohibition against 
blood included that of birds as well as of cattle, 
and was to be observed by Israel in all bis 
dwelling-places, because the blood was regarded 
as the soul of the animal, which God sanctified 
as the medium for the atonement of the soul of 
man (i" : n). 

28-34. 8. The priest's share of the peace 
offering. In the peace ofierings, which were the 
sacrifices on which the offerers feasted, the suet 
was sacred to Jehovah for the fire offering on the 
altar, while the breast or brisket Jehovah 
claimed as his own for the use of his representa- 
tives the priests. The act of devoting this por- 
tion to Jehovah that it might revert to the use 
of the sanctuary was symbolized by waving, i. e., 
placing it upon the offerer's hands, along with 
those of the priest placed underneath, and mov- 
ing it to and fro. The term seems to have been 
sometimes used more generally of the act of 
devoting any gift to Jehovah, which was to be 
received back for sacred use rather then sent up 
irrevocably in the altar flame, as where men 
were said to wave a wave offering of gold for the 
tabernacle (Exod. 35 .- 22). "Waving especially 
characterized the act of consecration, and even 
the Levites at their consecration to the tabernacle 
service were said to be waved (Num. 8 : 11) , perhaps 



by being conducted solemnly up to the altar 
and back again. In addition to the wave breast, 
which reverted to the priests in general, there 
was also given to the priest who officiated the 
right thigh or round as a frumah, i. e., a portion 
lifted off" or set apart (see on ver. 14). The legisla- 
tion in this place is different from that in Deut. 
18 : 3, where the priest's portion is designated as 
the shoulder (called in Hebrew the arm), the 
two cheeks, and the maw. It is thought by 
modern critics that this priest code represents 
the latest stage in the history of the sacerdotal 
rites, the earlier stages being reflected first in 1 
Sam. 2 : 13-16, where the priest is seen to have 
no understood claim to definite dues of flesh, and 
secondly in Deuteronomy {loc. cit.), where the 
priest's dues are fixed definitely, but where the 
portion assigned him is not so choice as in this 
passage. 

35, 36. First subscription to the jyreceding 
section. This subscription applies to the sec- 
tion 6 : 8 to 7 : 34, in so far as this comprises 
regulations respecting the priests' share in the 
different offerings. The anointing portion per- 
haps means the portion due the priests in virtue 
of their anointing or office ; though Driver holds 
that this translation is due to a mistaken ety- 
mology, and that the term means something 
measured out or allotted. 

3Tj 38. Second more general subscription. In 



Ch. VIII.] 



LEVITICUS 



41 



38 Which the Lord commanded Moses iu mount 
Binai, in the day that he commanded the children 
of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord, in 
the wilderness of Sinai. 



38 offerings ; which the Lord commanded Moses in 
mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the 
children of Israel to offer their oblations unto 
the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai. 



CHAPTEE VIII 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Take Aaron and his sous with him, and the 
garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for 
the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of 
unleavened bread ; 

3 And gather thou all the congregation together 
unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 

4 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him ; 
and the assembly was gathered together unto the 
door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 

5 And Moses said unto the congregation. This is 
the thing which the Lord commanded to be done. 

6 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and 
washed them with water. 

7 And he put upon him the coat, and girded him 
with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, 
and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him 
with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound it 
unto him therewith. 

8 And he put the breastplate upon him : also he 
put in the breasplate the Urim and the Thummim. 

9 And he put the mitre upon his head ; also upon 
the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the 
golden plate, the holy crown ; as the Lord com- 
manded Moses. 

10 And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed 
the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanc- 
tified them. 

11 And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven 
times, and anointed the altar and all his vessels, 
both the laver and his foot, to sanctify them. 

12 And he poured of the anointing oil upon 
Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Take Aaron and his sous witli him, and the gar- 
ments, and the anointing oil, and the bullock of 
the sin offeriug, and the two rams, and the bas- 

3 ket of unleavened bread ; and assemble thou all 
the congregation at the door of the tent of meet- 

4 ing. And Moses did as the Lord commanded 
him ; and the congregation was assembled at 

5 the door of the tent of meeting. And Moses said 
unto the congregation, This is the thing which 

6 the Lord hath commanded to be done. And 
Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed 

7 them with water. And he put upon him the 
coat, and girded him with the girdle, and 
clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod 
upon him, and he girded him with the cun- 
ningly woven band of the ephod, and bound it 

8 unto him therewith. And he placed the breast- 
plate upon him : and in the breastplate he put 

9 the Urim and the Thummim. And he set the 
mitre upon his head ; and upon the mitre, in 
front, did he set the golden plate, the holy 

10 crown; as the Lord commanded Moses. And 
Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the 
tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanc- 

11 tified them. And he sprinkled thereof upon the 
altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all 
its vessels, and the laver and its base, to sauc- 

12 tify them. And he poured of the anointing oil 
upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sane- 



its form this subscription seems to relate only to 
the section beginning with 6 : 8, and charac- 
terized by the recurring formula, This is the 
la.w of. Only the laws thus introduced are 
recognized in the subscription, where they occur 
mainly in the same order. This passage, how- 
ever, forms the conclusion of the whole law of 
the offerings. 



III. The CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS, 
AND THEIR SOLEMN ENTRY UPON OFFICE, 

chap. 8 to 10. 

Chap. 8. 1-4. 1. The preparation. This 
account of the consecration of Aaron and his 
sons, which is the only narrative portion of the 
book with the exception of the short account of 
the stoning of the blasphemer (24 : 10-23)^ follows 
closely the directions given to Moses in Exod. 
29 : 1-37; 40 : 12-15. "The" bullock and 
"the "rams and "the" basket of unleavened 
(see R. v.), were the ones prescribed in that pas- 
sage. The basket contained loaves, i. c, flat 
circular cakes (ver. 26 ; Exod. 29 : 23) of unlcavcued 
bread, also cakes kneaded with oil and cakes 
anointed with oil (see Exod 29 : 2). The whole 
congregation was assembled in the court of the 
tabernacle near the altar. 

5-13. 2, The washing, clothing, and anoint- 



ing. After premising that what was immedi- 
ately to take place before their eyes was accord- 
ing to the explicit command of Jehovah, Moses 
brought Aaron and his sons near before the con- 
gregation and washed them with water. He 
then clothed Aaron with the ©fl&cial garments 
prescribed in Exod. 28, putting on him first the 
tunic or shirt of checker-work of linen (Exod. 28 : 
39), girding it with its girdle or sash, then the 
one-piece robe (ibw., 31-35) on the skirt of which 
were the bells and pomegranates, then the ephod 
(ibid., 6-14) of two picccs, front and back, held to- 
gether at the shoulders by the jeweled clasps 
on which the names of the tribes were engraved, 
and bound to the wearer by its curious girdle. 
Upon this he put the breastplate (ibid., 15-30) in- 
side of which were the Urim and Thummim or 
instruments for sacred divination. Then upon 
his head he put the mitre or turban (ibid., 39) 
with its engraved gold plate or diadem of holi- 
ness (Ibid., 36-38). 

With the anointing oil, whose composition is 
given in Exod. 30 : 22, seq., Moses anointed first 
the tabernacle with its furniture, including the 
altar and the laver, and then poured the oil 
on the head of Aaron. The anointing of the 
sons, w^hile not directly assorted here, is com- 
manded in Exod, 28 : 41 ; 40 : 15, and implii'd in 



42 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. VIII. 



13 And Moses brought Aaron's sons, and put 
coats upon them, and girded them with girdles, 
and put bonnets upon them ; as the Lord com- 
manded Moses. 

14 And he brought the bullock for the sin offer- 
ing : and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon 
the head of the bullock for the sin offering. 

15 And he slew it; and Moses took the blood, and 

Eut it upon the horns of the altar round about with 
is finger, and purified the altar, and poured the 
blood at the bottom of the altar, and sanctified it, 
to make reconciliation upon it. 

16 And he took all the fat that was upon the in- 
wards, and the caul above the liver, and the two 
kidneys, and their fat, and Moses burned it upon 
the altar. 

17 But the bullock, and his hide, his flesh, and 
his dung, he burnt with fire without the camp ; as 
the Lord commanded Moses. 

18 And he brought the ram for the burnt offer- 
ing : and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon 
the head of the ram. 

19 And he killed it ; and Moses sprinkled the 
blood upon the altar round about. 

20 And he cut the ram into pieces ; and Moses 
burnt the head, and the pieces, and the fat. 



13 tify him. And Moses brought Aaron's sons, and 
clothed them with coats, and girded them with 
girdles, and bound headtires upon them ; as the 

14 Lord commanded Moses. And he brought the 
bullock of the sin offering : and Aaron and his 
sons laid their hands upon the head of the bul- 

15 lock of the sin offering. And he slew it ; and 
Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns 
of the altar round about with his finger, and 
purified the altar, and poured out the blood at 
the base of the altar, and sanctified it, to make 

16 atonement for it. And he took all the fat that 
was upon the inwards, and the caul of the liver, 
and the two kidneys, and their fat, and Moses 

17 burned it upon the altar. But the bullock, and 
its skin, and its flesh, and its dung, he burnt 
with fire without the camp ; as the Lord com- 

18 manded Moses. And he presented the ram of 
the burnt offering : and Aaron and his sons laid 

19 their hands upon the head of the ram. And be 
killed it: and Moses sprinkled the blood uj^on 

20 the altar round about. And he cut the ram h\U) 
its pieces ; and Moses burnt the head, and the 



7 : 36 and 10 : 7. They are said also (ver. so) to 
have been sprinkled with mingled blood and oil 
along with their father. From the fact that 
the high priest is distinguished as the anointed 
■priest in 4 : 3, and from some other indications, 
Driver is inclined to regard those passages com- 
manding or implying an anointing of the inferior 
priests, beyond this sprinkling with blood and 
oil (ver. 30), as glosses of doubtful authenticity. 
Moses also clothed the sons, according to the 
directions in Exod. 28 : 40, with body-coats of 
common woven work (Exod. 39 : 27), girdles, and 
head tires. 

14-17. 3. The sin offering. The sin offering 
prescribed in chap. 4 is an offering for actual 
sin committed through error and subsequently 
brought to the attention of the transgressor. 
Here we have a sin offering prescribed for a 
hitherto innocent person as a preparation for a 
life of higher consecration, a sort of general 
clearing up of any possible defilements, even 
though conscious transgression has not occurred. 
A similar association of the sin offering with a 
voluntary life of higher devotion is seen in the 
case of the vow of the Nazarite (^'um. 6 : 14) . This 
points to the conception of sin as a state or level 
of life, rather than simply an act or series of 
acts that could be brought to mind or checked 
off in an index of prohibited indulgences. As 
compared with a state of higher sanctity the 
ordinary life is a state of sin, innocent enough 
when not viewed from the level of the purer 
and more sciiipulous life, but needing a sin 
offering as soon as the person passes to a higher 
ethical standpoint. This offering is the act of 
one who has acquired the insight to say. 
Who can discern his errors ? 
Clear thou me from bidden faults. 



(Ps. 19 : 12.) The conception of sin may not have 
widened beyond the old primitive idea of a de- 
filement or a contagion ; but it is already at 
least thought of, in some of its aspects, as a de- 
filement so inward that it may not be discerned, 
so intimately blended with the positive con- 
science that it increases on the adoption of a 
preferred purity — the condemnation, indeed, not 
of a fall but of an obligation to rise, the faint 
foreshadowing of that arduous morality whose 
final standard and instrument of self-condemna- 
tion is, " Be ye perfect." 

The victim employed for this sin offering was 
a bullock, and the manner of offering was 
mainly according to the directions given for the 
sin offering for the anointed priest in 4 : 3-12. 
An important divergence, however, is seen in 
the disposal of the blood. This was not sprin- 
kled seven times before the veil, as there di- 
rected, nor was it brought into the holy place 
and smeared on the horns of the altar of incense. 
At the same time its flesh was not eaten accord- 
ing to the general regulation for sin offerings 
whose blood was not brought into the sanctu- 
ary, but burned according to the law for those 
whose blood was brought into the holy place 
(6 : 30 ; 10 : 18 : Heb. 13 : ii). This may be bccausc 
the directions given here represent a less ad- 
vanced stage in the growth of the sacrificial sys- 
tem than chap 4 (see on i -. 22-26) ; but it may also 
be because, neither Moses nor Aaron being yet 
consecrated as priests, the blood was treated as 
in the case of the sin offering of the ruler (* : 25) 
or one of the common people (ibid., 30), and yet 
the flesh was not eaten because only priests had 
a right to eat the sin offering (6 : 25, 26). 

18-21. 4. The burnt offering. The first ram 
with which Moses was commanded to provide 



Ch. VIII.] 



LEVITICUS 



43 



21 And he washed the inwards and the legs in 
water ; and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the 
altar : it was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet savour, 
and an offering made by tire unto the Lord ; as the 
Lord commanded Moses. 

22 And he brought the other ram, the ram ot 
consecration : and Aaron and his sous laid their 
hands upon the head of the ram. 

23 And he slew it ; and Moses took of the blood 
of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, 
and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon 
the great toe of his right foot. 

24 And he brought Aaron's sons, and Moses put 
of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, 
and upon the thumbs of their right hands, and 
upon the great toes of their right feet : and Moses 
sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about. 

25 And he took the fat, and the rump, and all the 
fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above 
the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and 
the right shoulder : 

26 And out of the basket of unleavened bread, 
that was before the Lord, he took one unleavened 
cake, and a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and 
put them on the fat, and upon the right shoulder : 

27 And he put all upon Aaron's hands, and upon 
his sons' hands, and waved them Jor a wave 
offering before the Lord. 

28 And Moses took them from off their hands, 
and burnt them on the altar upon the burnt offer- 
ing : they were consecrations for a sweet savour: it 
is an offering made by fire unto the Lord. 

29 And Moses took the breast, and waved it for 
a wave offering before the Lord : for of the ram 
of consecration it was Moses' part ; as the Lord 
commanded Moses. 

30 And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of 
the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled 
it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon 
his sons, and upon his sons' garments with him ; 
and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his 
sons, and his sons' garments with him. 

31 And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons. 
Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle of the 



21 pieces, and the fat. And he washed the inwards 
and the legs with water ; and Moses burnt the 
whole raiJi upon the altar : it was a burnt offer- 
ing for a sweet savour : it was an offering made 
by fire unto the Lord ; as the Lord commanded 

22 Moses. And he presented the other ram, the 
ram of consecration : and Aaron and his sons 

23 laid their hands upon the head of the ram. And 
he slew it ; and Moses took of the blood thereof, 
and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and 
upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the 

24 great toe of his right foot. And he brought Aa- 
ron's sons, and Moses put of the blood upon tiie 
tip of their right ear, and upon the thumb of 
their right hand, and upon the great toe of their 
right foot : and Moses sprinkled the blood upon 

25 the aitar round about. And he took the fat.and 
the fat tail, and all the fat that was upon the 
inwards, and the caul of tiie liver, and the two 

26 kidneys, and their fat, ai:d the right thigh : and 
out of the basket of unleavened bread, that 
was before the Lord, he took one unleavened 
cake, and one cake of oiled bread, and one 
wafer, and placed them on the fat, and upon the 

27 right thigh : and he put the whole upon the 
hands of Aaron, and upon the hands of his sons, 
and waved them for a wave offering before the 

28 Lord. And Moses took them from off their 
hands, and burnt them on the altar upon tlie 
burnt offering : they were a consecration for a 
sweet savour : it was an offering made by fire 

29 unto the Lord. And Moses took the breast, and 
waved it for a wave offering before the Lord : it 
was Moses' portion of the ram of consecration ; 

30 as the Lord commanded Moses. And Moses took 
of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was 
upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, 
upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon 
his sons' garments with him ; and sanctified 
Aaron, his garments, and 'is sons, and his sons' 

31 garments with him. And Moses said unto Aar- 
on and to his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of 



himself (ver. 2) was offered as a burnt offering 
according to the ritual laid down in chap. 1. 
Thus Aaron and his sons, who laid their hands 
on the head of the victim, expressed their pur- 
posed sanctification, body and soul, to the service 
of Jehovah. 

22-30. 5. The ram of consecration. The 
second, the ram of consecration or installation, 
was treated as a peace offering, of which, how- 
ever, unlike ordinary peace offerings, only the 
priests could eat (Exod. 29 : 33), It was called the 
ram of consecration, literally the ram o^ fillings, 
perhaps from the ceremony of filling the hands of 
Aaron and of his sons with selected portions of 
it, as described in ver. 27. To fill the hands 
came ultimately to mean simply to consecrate, 
so that Ezekiel uses the term even of the con- 
secration of an altar (Ezek. « : 26). The peculiar 
feature of the sacrificing of this ram was, first 
the disposal of the blood, and then the waving 
or filling ceremony connected with the portions 
to be sacrificed. A bit of blood was put upon 
the right ear of Aaron and of his sons, and 
upon the thumb of the right hand, and upon the 
great toe of the right foot, doubtless to express, 
not the cleansing of the natural powers as in 



the putting of the blood of the guilt offering on 
the same parts of the cured leper (1* = i^-iT), but 
the consecration of the powers to the service of 
Jehovah. Then taking the fat portions which 
were always claimed from the peace offerings 
for the altar, together with the right thigh and 
one of each species of cake in the basket before 
Jehovah, Moses placed them upon the hands of 
Aaron and of his sons and waved them before 
Jehovah, thus offering them to Jehovah for the 
use of the sanctuary (see on 7 : 28-34) ^ and then 
took them from their hands and burned them 
on the altar ; so that in their initial consecra- 
tion even that which belonged exclusively to 
the priests (f : 34) was sacrificed to Jehovah. 
One reserve of the priest's portion, however, 
was made in this consecration act: the wave 
breast became the portion of Moses, the specially 
commissioned mediator of the law\ Finally 
Moses took some of the blood of the sacrificed 
ram, along with some of the anointing oil, and 
sprinkled upon Aaron and his sons and upon 
their garments to sanctify them. 

31-36. 6. Remaining ceremonial for the seven 
days. This ceremonial consisted of the conse- 
cration feast at the completion of the first day's 



44 



LEVITICUS 



LCh. IX. 



congregation : and there eat it with the bread that 
is iu the basket of consecrations, as I commanded, 
saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it. 

32 And that which remaineth of the flesh and of 
the bread shall ye burn with fire. 

38 And ye shall not go out of the door of the 
tabernacle of the congregation in seven days, until 
the days of your consecration be at an end : for 
seven days shall he consecrate you. 

34 As he hath done this day, so the Lord hath 
commanded to do, to make an atonement for you. 

85 Therefore shall ye abide at the door o*f the 
tabernacle of the congregation day and night seven 
days, and keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die 
not : for so I am commanded. 

36 So Aaron and his sons did all things which 
the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses. 



the tent of meeting: and there eat it and the 
bread that is iu the basket of consecration, as I 
commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall 

32 eat it. And that which remaineth of the flesh 

33 and of the bread shall ye burn with fire. And 
ye shall not go out from the door of the tent of 
meeting seven days, until the days of your con- 
secration be fulfilled : for he shall consecrate 

34 you seven days. As hath been done this day, so 
the Lord hath commanded to do, to make atone- 

35 ment for you. And at the door of the tent of 
meeting shall ye abide day and night seven 
days, and keep the charge of the Lord, that ye 

36 die not: for so I am commanded. And Aaron 
and his sons did all the things which the Lord 
commanded by the hand of Moses. 



CHAPTER IX 



1 AND it came to pass on the eighth day, that 
Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders 
of Israel ; 

2 And he said unto Aaron, Take thee a young 
calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offer- 
ing, without blemish, and offer them before the 
Lord. 

3 And unto the children of Israel thou shalt 
speak, saying, Take ye a kid of the goats for a sin 
offering ; and a calf and a lamb, both of the first 
year, without blemish, for a burnt offering ; 

4 Also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings, to 
sacrifice before the Lord ; and a meat offering min- 
gled with oil : for to day the Lord will appear unto 
you. 

5 And they brought that which Moses com- 
manded before the tabernacle of the congregation : 
and all the congregation drew near and stood 
before the Lord. 

6 And Moses said, This is the thing which the 
Lord commanded that ye should do : and the glory 
of the Lord shall appear unto you. 

7 And Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the altar, 
and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, 
and make an atonement for thyself, and for the 
people : and offer the offering of the people, and 
make an atonement for them ; as the Lord com- 
manded. 

8 Aaron therefore went unto the altar, and slew 
the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. 

9 And the sons of Aaron brought the blood unto 
him : and he dipped his finger In the blood, and 
put it upon the horns of the altar, and poured out 
the blood at the bottom of the altar : 

10 But the fat, and the kidneys, and the caul 
above the liver of the sin offering, he burnt upon 
the altar ; as the Lord commanded Moses. 

11 And the flesh and the hide he burnt with fire 
without the camp. 

12 And he slew the burnt offering ; and Aaron's 
sons presented unto him the blood, which he 
sprinkled round about upon the altar. 

13 And they presented the burnt offering unto 
him, with the pieces thereof, and the head : and 
he burnt thein upon the altar. 

14 And he did wash the inwards and the legs, 
and burnt thejn upon the burnt offering on the altar. 



1 AND it came to pass on the eighth day, that 
Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders 

2 of Israel ; and he said unto Aaron, Take thee a 
bull calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt 
offering, without blemish, and offer them before 

3 the Lord. And unto the children of Israel thou 
shalt speak, saying. Take ye a he-goat for a sin 
offering ; and a calf and a lamb, both of the first 
year, without blemish, for a burnt offering ; 

4 and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sac- 
rifice before the Lord ; and a meal offering min- 
gled with oil : for to-day the Lord appeareth 

5 unto you. And they brought that which Moses 
commanded before the tent of meeting : and all 
the congregation drew near and stood before the 

6 Lord. And Moses said, This is the thing which 
the Lord commanded that ye should do : and 
the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you. 

7 And Moses said unto Aaron, Draw near unto the 
altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt 
offering, and make atonement for thyself, and 
for the people: and offer the oblation of the 
people, and make atonement for them ; as the 

8 Lord commanded. So Aaron drew near unto 
the altar, and slew the calf of the sin offering, 

9 which was for himself. And the sons of Aaron 
presented the blood unto him : and he dipped 
his finger in the blood, and put it upon the 
horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at 

10 the base of the altar: but the fat, and the kid- 
neys, and the caul from the liver of the sin 
offering, he burnt upon the altar ; as the Lord 

11 commanded Moses. And the flesh and the skin 

12 he burnt with fire without the camp. And he 
slew the burnt offering ; and Aaron's sons de- 
livered unto him the blood, and he sprinkled it 

13 upon the altar round about. And they delivered 
the burnt offering unto him, piece by piece, and 
the head : and he burnt them upon the altar. 

14 And he washed the inwards and the legs, and 
burnt them upon the burnt oft'ering on the altar. 



ritual, and the repetition through the seven 
days of all the ritual of the first. The feast dif- 
fered from the ordinary peace ofiering feast in 
being restricted to the priests and in allowing 
none except unleavened bread. It was accord- 
ing to the command in Exod. 29 : 35-37 that this 
solemn ceremony was repeated for seven days. 
During all this time Aaron and his sons did not 
depart from the door of the tent of meeting to 
engage in any secular employment. 



Chap. 9. 1 -24. Aaron and his sons solemnly 
enter upon office. Having gone through the eight 
days of consecration, they are now to begin form- 
ally the routine duties of the priesthood. Always 
first comes the offering for himself, beginning 
with the sin offering, thus acknowledging before 
the people his own infirmity. His owm victim 
was a bull calf, an offering of less dignity than 
the bullock (s : i4), which he had offered every 
day for a sin offering during his Qonsecrgition, 



Ch. IX.] 



LEVITICUS 



45 



15 And he brought the people's offering, and 
took the goat, whieli was the sin offering for the 
people, and slew it, and offered it for sin, as the 
first. 

16 And he brought the burnt offering, and offered 
it according to the manner. 

17 And he brought the meat offering, and took 
an handful thereof, and burnt it upon the altar, 
beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning. 

18 He slew also the bullock and the ram for a 
sacrifice of peace offerings, which was for the peo- 
ple : and Aaron's sons presented unto him the 
blood, which he sprinkled upon the altar round 
about, 

19 And the fat of the bullock and of the ram, the 
rump, and that which covereth tke inwards, and 
the kidneys, and the caul above the liver : 

20 And they put the fat upon the breasts, and he 
burnt the fat upon the altar : 

21 And the breasts and the right shoulder Aaron 
waved for a wave offering before the Lord ; as 
Moses commanded. 

22 And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the peo- 
ple, and blessed them, and came down from offer- 
ing of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and 
peace offerings. 

23 And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle 
of the congregation, and came out and blessed the 
people : and the glory of the Lord appeared unto 
all the people. 

24 And there came a fire out from before the 
Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offer- 
ing and the fat: which when all the people saw, 
they shouted, and fell on their faces. 



15 And he presented the people's oblation, and took 
the goat of the sin ottering which was for the 
people, and slew it, and ottered it for sin, as the 

16 ttrst. And he presented the burnt offering, and 

17 offered it according to the ordinance. And he 
presented the meal ottering, and filled his hand 
therefrom, and burnt it upon tlie altar, besides 

18 the burnt ott"ering of the morning. He slew also 
the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace ott'er- 
ings, which was for the people: and Aaron's 
sons delivered unto him the blood, and hesprin- 

19 kled it upon the altar round about, and the fat 
of the ox ; and of the ram, the fat tail, and that 
which covereth the inivards, and tiie kidneys, 

20 and the caul of the liver: and they put the fat 
upon the breasts, and he burnt thefat upon the 

21 altar : and the breassts and the right thigh Aaron 
waved for a wave oft'ering before the Lord ; as 

22 Moses commanded. And Aaron lifted up his 
hands toward the people, and blessed them ; 
and he came down from offering the sin offering, 
and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings. 

23 And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of 
meeting, and came out, and blessed the people : 
and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the 

24 people. And there came forth fire from before 
the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the 
burnt offering and the fat : and when all the 
people saw it, they shouted and fell on their 
faces. 



or than the young bullock (* ; 3) w'hich was re- 
quired of the anointed priest for a sin offering 
in the case of specific transgression. It served, 
however, to keep up the indispensable habit of 
always acknowledging the priest's own sins ; 
and this habit impressed the author of the Epis- 
tle to the Hebrews with the contrast of the im- 
perfect human priest to the Christ who offered 
himself once for all (Heb. 5 : 3 ; 7 : 27, 28). He was 
also to sacrifice a ram for a burnt oflering, while 
of the people he was to require a shaggy he-goat 
for a sin offering, the same kind of victim as 
was required of a ruler (* : 23) in the case of 
specific transgression, and a calf and a lamb for 
burnt offerings. For the people he was also to 
sacrifice an ox and a ram for peace offerings, 
the peace offerings for himself being omitted, as 
his whole seven days' service of filling or conse- 
cration had been of the nature of a peace offering. 
When the priest was once consecrated, indeed, 
we should hardly look for public peace offer- 
ings on his part, as these were more properly 
offerings of the people for the use of the priests ; 
and the consecration of these offerings to God 
for the use of his representatives was indicated 
by the ceremony of waving (see vcr. 21 ; also on 7 : 
28-34). The people were also to provide a m??i- 
chah or meal offering mingled with oil. By 
the announcement of Moses the people were 
led to expect some appearance of the glory of 
Jehovah. 
The offerings were made, in their order, 



according to the ritual already prescribed, the 
sous of Aaron performing only the part of at- 
tendants to deliver to their father the blood 
(ver. 9, 12, 18) and the pieces of the burnt offering 
(ver. 13). It is to bc obscrvcd (ver. 9) that Aaron 
only put the blood on the brazen altar and did 
not carry it into the inner sanctuary according 
to the ordinary directions for the sin offering 
for the high priest and for the people (* : 5-7, 
16-18). This was perhaps because he had never 
yet entered the sanctuary as consecrated high 
priest. 

At the conclusion of the sacrifice Aaron per- 
formed the act of a fully consecrated priest in 
blessing the people. This act, which in Deu- 
teronomy and the priest code appears to be the 
characteristic prerogative of the priest (oeut. 

10 : 8 ; Num. 6 : 23)^ ^yas performed by David (2 Sam. 

6:18) and Solomon (1 Kings s : 55). As Aaron 
came down from the high platform of the brazen 
altar he and Moses for the first time entered the 
tent of meeting, and as they came out the glory 
of Jehovah appeared to the congregation. The 
issue of fire from Jehovah (ver. 24) to consume 
the sacrifice can hardly have been the first kin- 
dling of the sacred fire which, according to 
Jewish tradition, was never allowed to go out 
until the captivity, for tliere had been sacrifices 
offered all through the seven days of the conse- 
cration. It was probably a special manifes- 
tation of the glory of Jehovah, not in that it 
now appeared for the first time, but in that it 



46 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. X. 



CHAPTER X. 



1 AND Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took 
either of them his censer, and put lire therein, and 
put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before 
the Lord, which he commanded them not. 

2 And there went out fire from the Lord, and 
devoured them, and they died before the Lord. 

3 Then Moses said unto Aaron, This z's it that the 
Lord spake, saying, 1 will be sanctified in them 
that come nigh me, and before ail the people 1 will 
be glorified. And Aaron held liis peace. 

4 And Moses called Misliael and Elzaphan, the 
sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said unto 
them. Come near, carrj- your brethren from before 
the sanctuary out of tlie'camp. 

5 So they went near, and carried them in their 
coats out of the camp ; as Moses had said, 

6 And iloses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar 
and unto Ithamar, his sons. Uncover not your 
lieads, neither rend your clothes ; lest ye die,"and 



1 AND Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, 
took each of them his censer, and put fire therein, 
and laid incente thereim, and offered strange 
fire before the Lord, which he had not com- 

2 manded them. And there came forth fire from 
before the Lord, and devoured them, and they 

3 died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto 
Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I 
will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, 
and before all the people I will be glorified. 

4 And Aaron held his peace. And Moses called 
Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the 
uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Draw near, 
carry your brethren from before the sanctuary 

5 out of the camp. So they drew^ near, and carried 
them in their coats out of the camp ; as Moses 

6 had said. And Moses said unto Aaron, and 
unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sous, Let not 
the hair of your heads go loose, neither rend 



suddenly consumed the victim, as on other oc- 
casions when the divine favor was manifested 

(see Judg. 6 : 21 ; 13 : 19, 20 ; 1 Kiugs 18 : 38 ; 1 Chrou. 21 : 26), 



Chap. 10, 1-7. Xadah and Abihu pun- 
ished for offering strange fire — the priests for- 
bidden to mourn for them. 1. We have not the 
data for knowing exactly what was the act 
which is here termed offered strange fire, 
but a grouping of the suggestive circum- 
stances accompanying the event may help us 
to conjecture something of the mental state 
of the young men and of the form which their 
rash act would be likely to take. They were 
the elder sons of Aaron (Exod. e : 23) and had 
been specially privileged when Moses went up 
into the mount (Exod. 2i ; i, 2), though, as they 
were commanded on that occasion to "wor- 
ship afar oflf," they may have been exalted in- 
to a feeling of exceptional familiarity with 
divine things without that full awe and humility 
of the divine fellowship which was vouchsafed 
to Moses. Of this strange fire the first mention 
indicates that it is not so much forbidden as 
unauthorized, or not commanded (^er. 1). 
The account is followed by a prohibition of the 
use of intoxicants by the priests when on duty 
(ver. 8, 9), from which the inference is not impos- 
sible that the young men may have been at 
least in that excitable and animated state which 
follows even the moderate use of wine. It is to 
be observed too, that the legislation regarding 
the Day of Atonement in which the privilege 
of entering the holy place is restricted to the 
high priest once a year follows as an immediate 
sequence upon their death, as if on that occasion 
some of the sanctities had been invaded (is : 1. 2). 
3. But the most suggestive passage is Moses' ex- 
planation of this act of judgment (^er. 3), in 
which he asserts that the Lord said, I will be 
sanctified in them that come nigh me, 



and before all the people I Avill be glo- 
rified, as if the glory of Jehovah had not 
been made sufliciently prominent in the young 
men's conduct. From all of which we may 
gather that when the young men saw the glory 
which was the climax of their days of consecra- 
tion (9 : 23, 24) they became intensely excited, 
being assisted perhaps by the wine in which 
they had indulged, and thought to enhance the 
glory of the occasion by appearing as chief 
hierophants in a spectacular scene in which the 
Lord would be honored with incense, thus mis- 
taking the proud and meaningless functioning 
in a solemn display for a genuine act of worship 
to Jehovah. In their eagerness they had per- 
haps become irreverent and approached too near 
the awful holiness of the inner sanctuary ; they 
had oflered their incense at a time and in a 
manner unknown to the careful regulations of 
the law, and it is possible that the fire may have 
been "strange" in that it was not taken from 
the altar where it had so recently been lighted 
directly from Jehovah, but had been taken from 
some of the fires used for boiling the sacrificial 
flesh. The act therefore so signally punished 
was not simply an ignorant overstepping of 
regulations in an excess of zeal, but an act 
of presumptuous familiarity and proud self- 
exaltation. 

The relationshij) of Uzziel and of Mishael and 
Elzaphan to Aaron is also given in Exod. 6 : 18, 
22. They were perhaps the nearest relatives of 
the stricken men wlio were not priests. It has 
been conjectured that these were the men who 
were incapacitated by contact with a dead body 
for keeping the Passover on the fourteenth day 
of Xisan, in the second year of the exodus, and 
for whose benefit the so-called " Little Passover " 
was instituted (see xum. 9 ■. e. 9-u). As for Aaron 
and his sons, they were not to let the hair of 
their heads go loose nor to rend their clothes 



Ch. X.] 



LEVITICUS 



47 



lest wrath come upon all the people : but let your 
brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the 
burning which the Lord hath kindled. 

7 And ye shall not go out from the door of the 
tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die : for the 
anointing oil of the Lord is upon you. And they 
did according to the word of Moses. 

8 And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, 

9 Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor 
thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle 
of "the congregation, lest ye die : it shall be a statute 
for ever throughout your generations : 

10 And that ye may put difference between holy 
and unholy, and between unclean and clean ; 



your clothes ; that ye die not, and that he be not 
wroth with all the congregation : but let your 
brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the 

7 burning which the Lord hath kindled. And ye 
shall not go out from the door of the tent of 
meeting, lest ye die : for the anointing oil of the 
Lord is upon you. And they did according to 
the word of Moses. 

8 And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, 

9 Drink no wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy 
sons with thee, when ye go into the tent of 
meeting, that ye die not : it shall be a statute for 

10 ever throughout your generations : and that ye 
may put difference between the holy and the 
common, and between the unclean and the 



lest they should seem rebellious against the 
dealings of Jehovah. As priests ihey were to 
maintain the honor of Jehovah in all his ways 
and so always to be found ranged on his side. 
The people, however, were permitted to bewail 
the burning which Jehovah had kindled. 

8-11. Priests forbidden to drink wine tvhile 
officiating. Observe that the legislation of this 
paragraph is represented as given by Jehovah 
directly to Aaron. The term strong drink is 
used to designate any kind of strong beverage 
except wine made from the grape. The Hebrews 
applied the term to any drink prepared from 
wheat, barley, millet, the juice of apples or dates. 
There is no direct evidence that the process of 
distillation was known among the Hebrews. 

There are in other parts of Scripture occa- 
sional mentions of religious feeling in connec- 
tion with that of intoxication so suggestively 
introduced that it seems not altogether fanciful 
to note that perhaps the same juxtaposition 
occurs here. When the apostles after a pro- 
longed period of prayer suddenly and for the 
first time experienced the ecstatic gift of tongues 
their mental exaltation was ascribed by some 
to drunkenness (Acts 2 13)^ as if there were some 
similarity on which to base the comparison. 
Paul exhorts the Ephesians to "be not drunk 
with wine . . . but be filled with the Spirit" 
(Eph. 5 : i8)j as if at least the one suggested the 
other to his mind. The sons of Aaron are pun- 
ished for offering strange fire, and in immediate 
connection with the act of divine judgment is 
given an interdiction of wine to priests on duty. 
Note too, that an object of the prohibition is 
that the distinction between the sacred and the 
secular may be kept clear. It seems as if the 
crime of the young men so signally punished 
must have been something more than a mere 
technical lapse in correctness of procedure. The 
strange fire was at least typical of, if not actually 
associated with, spurious religious feeling. Men- 
tal exaltation amounting to ecstasy has always 
been, valued in religion, and if these rash cele- 
brants had a sufficiently unethical conception 



of religion to think that such ecstasy, even 
when produced by wine, was pleasing to God, 
they were only on the same plane of thought 
with those conceptions which produced the rites 
of Dionysus and of corresponding deities in 
other nations. If the origin of their excitement 
was so palpable to the people that the influence 
of the whole scene would be, as in heathen re- 
ligions, to exalt drunkenness as an ally to relig- 
ion, the stern lesson was not incommensurate 
with the importance of the issue. The men 
were confusing the sacred and the profane. 
They were interposing a fatal hindrance to that 
emphasis of the ethical nature of religion which 
it was the genius of Hebrew cultus as well as 
prophecy to guard and foster. 

The dignity and decorum of the priesthood 
which their sobriety was to help to preserve, 
was to seek, for its cherished effect on the peo- 
ple, the maintaining of the distinction between 
holy and common, between unclean and clean. 
This separating of the sacred from the secular is 
what determines the whole spirit and motive of 
ceremonial religion. It is given as a reason for 
the distinction of animals allowed for food (n : 
47), and it is frequently urged in the teaching of 
Ezekiel, whose spirit has so much in common 
with this priestly legislation (Ezek. 22 : 26; 42 -. 20 ; 
44 : 23). That prophet, indeed, with this motive, 
makes this same prohibition of wine for priests 
(Ezek. 44 : 21, 23). Tliis characteristic of cere- 
monial religion has been referred to in the 
comments on chap. 1. It is the function of the 
priest to elaborate religion as a distinctive 
thing, and to keep it pure and conspicuous by 
its isolation from common life. His religion is 
not the whole of life, nor does it seek to be ; it is 
the sacred side of life. Hence it develops its 
sacred places, sacred days, sacred observances, 
sacred objects. One who is penetrated with the 
feeling of this aspect of religion is rightly 
shocked at all careless invasion of the domain 
of the holy by temporal interests and strivings. 
Such a feeling made our Lord indignant when 
he found the temple area crowded with the 



48 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. X. 



11 And that ye may teach the children of Israel 
all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto 
them by the hand of Moses. 

12 And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar 
and unto Ithamar, his sons that were left, Take the 
meat oflering that remaineth of the offerings of the 
Lord made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside 
the altar : for it is most holy : 

13 And ye shall eat it in the holy place, because 
it is thy due, and thy sons' due, of the sacrifices of 
the Lord made by fire : for so I am commanded. 



11 clean ; and that ye may teach the children of 
Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath 
spoken unto them by the hand of Moses. 

12 And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto Elea- 
zar find unto Ithamar, his sons that were left, 
Take the meal offering that remaineth of the 
offerings of the Lord made by fire, and eat it 
without leaven beside the altar : for it is most 

13 holy : and ye shall eat it in a holy place, be- 
cause it is thy due, and thy sons' due, of the 
offerings of the Lord made by fire : for so I am 



activities of commerce. It is necessary that re- 
ligion sho-uld thus have its separate places and 
times and solemn practices, that it may have a 
footing in the world, a fulcrum on which to rest 
its lever for the uplifting of humanity. But 
when this side of religion is cultivated exclu- 
sively, its isolation and orderly performance be- 
comes an end in itself. Religion becomes the 
separate calling of the clergy, rather than a 
life for every one, and the man of worldly oc- 
cupation gets the benefit of it only through the 
momentary magic of its sacraments. When 
men have performed their church duties they 
have discharged their obligations toward God, 
and the secular life is simply unrelated to him. 
This is the danger of religion founded solely on 
worship. 

On the other hand the function of the prophet 
is to seek to make the motive and the strength 
of religion pervade all life. Besides elaborating 
itself and guarding its purity as a system of wor- 
ship, religion must also enter the world as a 
system of righteousness. The sacred must per- 
vade the secular. This was the aim of the 
prophets; they desired to make religion not 
only a sacred thing but a leaven. This aim was 
carried out still more extensively by Christian- 
ity, for Christianity was the culmination of He- 
brew prophecy rather than of the Hebrew cul- 
tus. It was this tendency to diffuse and even 
dissipate the sacred in the interest of its effect- 
iveness — to put it into the ground to die like a 
seed that it might bring forth fruit — which made 
the priestly interest and the temple interest in- 
stinctively feel that Christianity was its enemy 

(Matt. 26 : 61 ; Acts 6:13, 14). It is bcCaUSe the 

Judaism of the present time is not sufficiently 
in touch with the prophetic side of religion that 
it still lingers in the separations and exclusions 
of the spiritual life, even though its temple rit- 
ual has passed away. A rabbi of the last end of 
the nineteentli century recently summarized the 
modern Jewish belief in a creed of ten articles, 
the third of which is: "I believe in separating 
the sacred from the secular." 

The teachings of Jesus and of the apostles, as 
already said, seem to indicate that the distinction 
of sacred and secular is not eternal. John saw 



no temple in heaven. But this necessity for the 
separation of religion from common life, like 
the rest of the law, will not pass away till all be 
fulfilled. While we are hedged about by the 
earthly necessity of labor, we must strenuously 
rescue and preserve one-seventh of our time for 
sacred rest. While the activities of this world 
are still so unpervaded with divine motive that 
they press upon us to make us forget God, there 
must be some special divine service so separate 
from the world as to keep us reminded of his 
holiness. The world cannot dispense with a re- 
ligion of high enough unworldliness to make it 
conspicuous until that perfect time when all the 
common activity shall be pervaded with the 
Spirit of God, and the sacrednessof the regener- 
ate secular life shall be wholly manifest in its 
spirit and motive rather than in its form. 

12-20. The eating part of the consecration 
ceremonial. The part of this consecration cere- 
monial which was likely to come up to the pre- 
scribed mark with most difficulty was the 
priests' partaking of the portions of the sacrifice 
which were to be eaten ; and that because in the 
dreadful judgment upon Nadab and Abihu the 
man and father in Aaron, underneath the priest, 
had experienced a great shock ; and there 
would not be much zest for eating. The austere 
Moses, who would elevate the priesthood above 
all natural weakness, was especially active as 
soon as that judgment had fallen, to prevent any 
letting down from the high key in which the 
priests' dignity and duty had been set. He was 
very prompt to forbid any outward manifestation 
of grief (ver. 6), and now he is particularly watch- 
ful that Aaron and his sons shall by actual eating 
form the precedent of claiming their perquisites 
(ver. 12-15), and fulfill to the letter their duties 
(ver. 16-18). They must not only subsist by the 
altar, but they must eat, whether they have any 
appetite or not. A higher degree of sanctity- 
seems to be given to the meal offering than to 
the people's peace offerings. What remains of 
the meal offering from the fire offerings of Je- 
hovah is called holy of holies, or most holy (ver. 
12), and it is to be eaten by Aaron and his sons 
in a holy place ; while the priests' portion of the 
peace offerings was to be eaten by Aaron and 



Ch. XL] 



LEVITICUS 



49 



14 And the wave breast and heave shoulder shall 
ye eat in a clean place ; thou, and thy sons, and 
thy daughters with thee : for they he thy due, and 
thy sons' due, which are given out of the sacrifices 
of peace offerings of the children of Israel'. 

15 The heave shoulder and the wave breast shall 
they bring with the offerings made by fire of the 
fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the Lord ; 
and it shall be thine, and thy sons' with thee, by a 
statute for ever ; as the Lord hath commanded. 

16 And Moses diligently sought the goat of the 
siu offering, and, behold, it was burnt : and he was 
angry with Eleazaraud Ithamar, the sons of Aaron 
which were left alive, saying, 

17 Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering 
in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God 
hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the con- 
gregation, to make atonement for them before the 
Lord? 

18 Behold, the blood of it was not brought in 
within the holy place : ye should indeed have eaten 
it in the holy place, as I commanded. 

19 And Aaron said unto Moses, Behold, this day 
have they offered their sin offering and their burnt 
offering before the Lord ; and such things have 
befallen me : and ij I had eaten the sin offering to 
day, should it have been accepted in the sight of 
the Lord ? 

20 And when Moses heard that, he was content. 



14 commanded. And the wave breast and the 
heave thigh shall ye eat in a clean place ; thou, 
and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee : for 
they are given as thy due, and thy sons' due, 
out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the 

15 children of Israel. The heave thigh and the 
wave breast shall they bring with the offerings 
made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave 
offering before the Lord : and it shall be thine, 
and thy sons' with thee, as a due for ever ; as 
the Lord hath commanded. 

16 And Moses diligently sought the goatof the sin 
offering, and, behold, it was burnt : and he was 
angry with Eleazar and with Ithamar, the sons 

17 of Aaron that were left, saying. Wherefore have 
ye not eaten the sin offering in the place of the 
sanctuary, seeing it is most holy, and he hath 
given it you to bear the iniquity of the congre- 
gation, to make atonement for them before the 

18 Lord? Behold, the blood of it was not brought 
into the sanctuary within : ye should certainly 
have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded. 

19 And Aaron spake unto Moses, Behold, this day 
have they offered their sin offering and their 
burnt offering before the Lord ; and there have 
befallen me such things as these : and if I had 
eaten the sin offering to-day, would it have been 

20 well-pleasing in the sight of the Lord? And 
when Moses heard that, it was well-pleasing 
in his sight. 



his sons and his daughters in a clean place 

(ver. 14). 

The rule had been made that no sin offering 
of which any of the blood had been brought 
into the sanctuary to make atonement in the 
holy place should be eaten (e : so) ; now the con- 
verse is insisted upon by the lawgiver, so solic- 
itous for the integrity of his system and so jeal- 
ous of natural weakness, that where the blood is 
not brought into the sanctuary the sin offering 
shall be eaten. But on looking for the hairy 
goat of the people's sin offering Moses finds it 
to have been burnt; and he is angry with 
Eleazar and Ithamar for not eating it in the 
holy place. The theory of the matter was, as 
Moses felt commanded, that such sin oflFerings 
by being officially eaten formally incorporated 
the sins of the people into the representatives of 
God, who thus bore their iniquities. But Aaron, 
who had been silent throughout all Moses' stern 
moralizing (ver. 3) and rigid conducting, now 
came to the defense of his own and his sons' 
moderate yielding to natural affection. After 
what had befallen them they felt hardly worthy 
to assume the people's sins as immaculate me- 
diators. Despite the rigid letter of the law, 
would there have been heart enough in such a 
peiformance to be well-pleasing in the sight of 
Jehovah? Is not the mental preparation and 
sincerity of the worshiper of some consequence as 
well as the integrity of an ordinance ? This little 
touch of the human in Aaron, just entering on 
his training for the stern self-repressions of the 
priesthood, was sufficient to give Moses the hint 
that sometimes the man may be above the law. 



IV. Laws of purification and atone- 
ment, chap. 11 to 16. 

We come now to the part of the Jewish cere- 
monial regulations which has had probably more 
influence on the national psychology and con- 
science than any other. This is the matter of 
uncleanness and purification. Beginning with 
the classification of animals not allowed as food, 
the legislation goes on to the subject of purifica- 
tion after childbirth and of impurity from secre- 
tions, to the exceptionally serious uncleanness of 
leprosy, with its diagnosis, its treatment, the pro- 
cedure in reference to its analogue in garments 
and houses, and the rites connected with the res- 
toration to sanctuary privileges of the patient 
who has recovered ; and finally culminates with 
the great annual Day of Atonement, in which 
the whole sanctuary with its furniture is cere- 
monially cleansed from the imperceptible defile- 
ment which it has contracted by the services of 
the year. In this section the regulations in regard 
to uncleanness are made the more special topic of 
discussion, but this is far from containing the 
whole treatment of the subject. It is repeatedly 
mentioned all through the priestly legislation. 
The thought of defilement and contamination 
from without seemed to dominate the whole Jew- 
ish religious consciousness, and it has had more 
influence than any other in making and keeping 
the Jews the exceptional and separate race which 
they are to this day. 

Sin, so far as it could come within the benefit 
of expiation at all, was treated as a defilement ; 
and this aspect of it was necessarily more physical 
than ethical. Perhaps this conception of sin as 



D 



50 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XI. 



a defilement was the only one which could make 
the etficacy of the expiatory rites thinkable at 
all. The semi-physical and expiable class of 
sins, thus brought under the cognizance of the 
priest, came to have an enhanced influence in 
determining men's notions of the relative im- 
].ortance of transgressions. Under the influence 
i.i' the moral law and of growingly spiritual 
cH»nceptions of God, religion Avas bound to grow 
more ethical, but its ethics would have, so to 
speak, a physical cast, and would cause that evil 
which consisted in physical defilement to have 
a somewhat overbalanced importance. The 
purely physical and instinctive aversions with 
regard to food which had grown with the people 
from the earliest times were formulated as a part 
of religion, and thus were put in the way of 
increasing in ethical estimation as the religion 
to which they were attached grew more ethical. 
The Jew was not only defiled but made guilty 
by accidental contacts and lapses M'hich origi- 
nally had only a physical significance. 

A main consideration which made the Jews 
especially sensitive to the dread of defilement 
was their consciousness of their dignity as a holy 
and separate people. Their world mission to 
be holy unto Jehovah was given in the earliest 
extant legislation as the motive for not eating 
that which had been toi-n by beasts (Exod. 22 : si). 
It was emphatically urged in the priest code, 
especially in the so-called law of holiness, as the 
incentive, not only for ethical uprightness (i9 : 2, 
3; 20 : 6. 7), but for such strictucss with regard to 
physical uncleanness as is contemplated in this 
section (u : 44. 45 ; 20 : 25, 26). They were taught 
that they were to be a nation of priests, and 
this consciousness of a priestly dignity engen- 
dered the obligation to be patterns to the world 
of a priestly immaculateness. A passion for 
external purity was thus not only a cause but a 
consequence of their separateness as a nation ; 
and when through their extraordinary political 
vicissitudes they were singled out from the 
nations and thrown in more and more upon 
tliemselves, the purificatory side of religion and 
morals seemed to dominate their enthusiasm 
more and more, until under rabbinic influence 
it seemed as if almost the whole of religious 
thought summed itself up in the consideration 
of what was defiling and what was not. 

By the time of Christ the laborious washings 
and purifications had become so exacting and 
characteristic as to obtrude themselves on the 
attention in every picture of Jewish domestic or 
religious life. Our Lord's first miracle was 
wrought on material that chanced to be at hand 



" after the manner of the purifying of the Jews " 
(John 2 : 6). The attempt to draw John the Bap- 
tist into a rivalry with his Master grew out of a 
dispute which arose between some of his disci- 
ples and a Jew about purifying (Joim s : 25). The 
first Avhispers of antagonism to the Saviour's 
work in Galilee were set in motion because the 
disciples ate their food with "common" hands 
(Mark 7 : 2, 5). Mark especially sets forth the 
laboriousness of Pharisaic customs in regard to 
ablutions (Mark 7 : 3, 4) . A uotc of the temporariness 
of Jewish religion, to New Testament writers, 
was its slavery to " meats and drinks and divers 
washings" (Heb. 9:io). Paul labored to free his 
disciples from the "touch not, taste not, handle 
not" of ceremonial slavery (Coi. 2 : 21)^ and em- 
phasized the spirituality of the kingdom of God 
by insisting that it is not meat and drink, but 
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost (Rom. 14 : 17). Evcu Peter, when God would 
teach him that the old national exclusiveness 
must be broken down if he would follow the 
leadings of aggressive Christianity, had to be 
conquered by a direct attack on those scruples 
with regard to clean and unclean animals in 
which his prejudices no doubt had their strong- 
hold (Acts 10 : 12, seq). 

In dealing with that universal defect of the 
Judaism of his day our Lord implied that the 
whole conception of defilement had built itself 
up on a fundamentally erroneous principle. The 
Jewish conscience had become almost exclusively 
sensitive to contamination from outside. The 
primary conception of moral peril was that it is 
the world around which makes men evil. But 
Jesus set forth the antagonistic principle in a 
universal thesis which is no less than revolu- 
tionary: "Not that which entereth into the 
mouth defileth the man ; but that which pro- 
ceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man. 
. . . The things which proceed out of the mouth 
come forth out of the heart ; and they defile the 
man " (Matt. 15 : 11, 18). Here is a principle worthy 
of Him who contracted not defilement from 
touching the leper, but communicated purity. 
Life and purity work from within outward. 
Saving religion is not a defensive but an aggres- 
sive attitude. It is not the business of the god- 
like to stand still and keep out the evil by 
contamination-proof precautions, but to go forth 
into the world with an abounding life which 
shall touch but expel the evil. A wonderful 
principle this, and one which, in the face of 
centuries of the opposite way of thinking, no one 
but a divine being could have had the strength 
to assert ; though when once the principle was 



Ch. XL] 



LEVITICUS 



51 



CHAPTER XI. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Mosqs and to Aaron, 
saying unto them, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, 
these are the beasts which ye shall eat among all 
the beasts that are on the earth, 

3 Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven- 
footed, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, 
that shall ye eat. 

4 Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them 
that chew the cud, or of them that divide the 
hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, 
but divideth not the hoof ; he is unclean unto you. 

5 And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, 
but divideth not the hoof ; he is unclean unto you. 

6 And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but 
divideth not the hoof ; he is unclean unto you. 

7 And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and 
be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud ; he 
is unclean to you. 

8 Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase 
shall ye not touch ; they are unclean to you. 

9 These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters : 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aar- 

2 on, saying unto them, Speak unto the children of 
Israel, saying. These are the living things which 
ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the 

3 earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is 
clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the 

4 beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these 
shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or 
of them that part the hoof : the camel, because 
he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, he 

5 is unclean unto you. And the coney, because 
he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, 

6 he is unclean unto you. And the hare, because 
she cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, 

7 she is unclean unto j'^ou. And the swine, be- 
cause he parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, 
but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto 

8 you. Of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their 
carcases ye shall not touch ; they are unclean 
unto you. 

9 These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters : 



announced an enlightened and broad-minded 
Paul could so far folloAv his Lord out of the 
bondage of mere defensive scruple into the 
aggressive freedom of a conquering gospel as to 
teach that " every creature of God is good, and 
nothing to be rejected, if it be received with 
thanksgiving" (i Tim. 4 : 4). 

That the JevvS of the New Testament time, 
taking their start from these priestly regula- 
tions, came gradually to form their religious life 
on the very opposite of the true principle, how- 
ever, does not prove that the ceremonial laws 
enjoining purity were merely human and mis- 
leading. They were divine and right in their 
sphere. They were the most effective possible 
hold on the conscience of their time — a con- 
science which could not rise above the defilement 
conception of sin. They engendered a careful- 
ness about contracting uncleanness from without 
which is an indispensable element of religion 
at its defensive stage. This carefulness, merely 
physical at first, was a parable of and a prepa- 
ration for a similar carefulness in the spiritual 
realm. In spiritual things it is as important 
that we keep evil influences from invading us 
from without as that we mortify the impulses to 
evil which proceed from within. The defensive 
duty belongs to true religion, even though it be 
true religion of low^er intensity than the life- 
imparting aggressiveness of Christian love. The 
miscarriage of the law was due to the mechanical 
lifelessness of Jewish thought. The fault of the 
JeW'S was over estimation and idolatry of nega- 
tive purity. Freedom from defilement is good 
and needful, worthy indeed of divine legislation, 
but it cannot impart positive life. The cere- 
monially clean man is not thereby constituted a 
good man — he is only a man who is not infected 
with a particular kind of badness. The only 



possible positive goodness flows from a heart of 
love within. It was because the Jews, immured 
in their proud and separate defensiveness, were 
seeking to derive all their goodness from personal 
purity that they fell into disparagement before 
the might of our Lord's positive principle of life. 

Chap. 11. Clean and unclean animals. 
This is one of the places in Leviticus where 
Jehovah speaks to Moses and Aaron jointly. 
The others are 13 : 1 ; 15 : 1. 

1-8. Quadrupeds. A very ready general rule 
for distinguishing clean and unclean quadru- 
peds is given. Only those that part the hoof, 
so as to be completely cloven-footed, and chew 
the cud are to be eaten. An animal with one 
of these characteristics without the other could 
not be allowed as food, as, for instance, the 
camel, whose foot is only imperfectly cleft 
though he is a ruminant ; the coney, or, rather, 
hyrax Syriacus, and the hare, which are here 
stated to be ruminants, and also the swine, 
which parts the hoof but does not bring up the 
cud. The hyrax is a very timid gregarious 
pachyderm living among the rocks (ps- 104 : is; 
Prov. 30 : 26). It is uot a ruminaut, nor is the hare, 
but these animals have a habit of moving the 
jaws when at rest as if chewing, and so might 
easily be mistaken for ruminants. Moses is not 
giving a scientific description of these animals, 
but identifying them by characteristics familiar 
to the common people. The pig is probably pro- 
hibited on account of its dirty habits and be- 
cause its flesh, particularly in warm climates, is 
very generally regarded as unwholesome. The 
law regarding quadrupeds is given in Deu- 
teronomy in a somewhat more detailed form 

(Deut. 14 : 4-8). 

9-12. Aquatic creatures. In regard to these 
creatures also a very distinct general principle 



52 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XI. 



whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in 
the seas, and in the rivers, them sliall j'e eat. 

10 And all that have nut tins and scales in 
the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the 
waters, and of any Jiving thing which is in the 
waters, they shall be an abomination unto you : 

11 They shall be even an abomination unto you ; 
ye shall "not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have 
their carcases in abomination. 

12 Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the 
waters, that shall be an abomination unto you. 

13 And these are they which ye shall have in 
abomination among the fowls ; they shall not 
be eaten, they are an abomination : the eagle, and 
the ossifrage, and the ospray, 

14 And the vulture, and the kite after his kind ; 

15 Every raven after his kind ; 

16 And the owl, and the nighthawk, and the 
cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, 

17 And the little owl, and the cormorant, and 
the great owi, 

18 And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier 
eagle, 

19 And the stork, the heron after her kind, and 
the lapwing, and the bat. 

20 All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall 
he an abomination unto you. 

21 Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping 
thing that goeth "upon all four, whfch have legs 
above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth : 

22 Even these of them ye may eat ; the locust 
after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, 
and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper 
after his kind. 

23 But all other flying creeping things, which 
have four feet, shall he an abomination unto you. 

24 And for these ye shall be unclean : whosoever 
touches the carcase of them shall be unclean until 
the even. 

25 And whosoever beareth ought of the carcase of 
them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until 
the even. 



whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, 
in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. 

10 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, 
and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, 
and oi all the living creatures that are in the 

11 waters, they are an abomination unto you, and 
they shall be an abomination unto you ; ye shall 
not eat of their flesh, and their carcases ye shall 

12 have in abomination. Whatsoever hath no tiuh 
nor scales in the waters, that is an abomination 
unto you. 

13 And these ye shall have in abomination amoner 
the fowls; they shall not be eaten, tliey are 
an abomination: the eagle, and the gier eagle, 

14 and the ospray ; and the kite, and the falcon 

15 after its kind': every raven after its kind ; 

16 and the ostrich, and the night hawk, and the 

17 seamew, and the hawk after its kind ; and the 
little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl ; 

18 and the horned owl. and the pelican, and the 

19 vulture ; and the stork, the heron after its kind, 
and the hoopoe, and the bat. 

20 All winged creeping things that go upon all 

21 four are an abomination unto you. Yet these 
may ye eat of all winged creeping things that 
go upon all four, which have legs above their 

22 feet, to leap w-ithal upon the earth ; even these 
of them ye may eat ; the locust after its kind, 
and the bald locust its kind, and the cricket 
after its kind, and the grasshopper after its 

23 kind. But all winged creeping things, which 
have four feet, are an abomination unto you. 

24 And by these ye shall become unclean : who- 
soever toucheth the carcase of them shall be un- 

25 clean until the even : and whosoever beareth 
aught of the carcase of them shall wash his 



of classification is possible. Only those aquatic 
animals which have fins and scales are allowed 
a,s food. 

13-19. Flyinq creatures. (1) Birds. No 
general rule for distinguishing unclean from 
clean birds is given, but only a list of twenty 
kinds of birds that are not to be eaten. So far 
as identified, these are all birds that live on 
animal food. In the extreme difficulty of iden- 
tifying the species that are designated by the 
Hebrew names some hesitation is felt in append- 
ing a revised translation of the list as found 
in our version: "The griffin vulture, and the 
bearded vulture, and the osprey ; and the kite, 
and the falcon after its kind ; every raven after 
its kind ; and the ostrich, and the screech-owl, 
and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kind ; 
and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the 
great owl ; and the ibis, and the pelican, and 
the carrion vulture ; and the stork, and the 
gi-eat plover after its kind, and the hoopoe, and 
the bat." In calling the bat a bird of course 
the popular notion is followed. 20-23. (2) 
Flying insects. The Hebrew expression is, 
"all swarming things with wings," the word, 
y^.'P, shSrStz, translated in our English version, 
creeping things, referring to their swarming or 



breeding in immense numbers rather than to 
their mode of locomotion. " Going upon all 
four" probably means going with the body in a 
horizontal position like a quadruped, the phrase 
not being intended, even in ver. 23, to limit 
strictly the number of feet, which with many 
flying insects is more than four. Permission is 
given to eat such flying insects as have distinctly 
defined legs for leaping, and four kinds of locusts 
are specified. AVe have no means for identify- 
ing these species, and the English translation is 
pure guesswork. Locusts are still eaten by the 
poor among many Arab tribes. Along with 
wild honey they constituted the food of John 

the Baptist (ilatt. 3:4). 

24-40. On the pollution caused by contact 
ivith the carcases of certain animals. This sec- 
tion appears to be of a difierent order from the 
rest of the chapter in that it describes the crea- 
tures which are not only not to be eaten but 
whose carcases are not to be touched, and also 
defines the purification rendered necessary by 
defilement. It may possibly not be a part of the 
original draft of the chapter, as its peculiar con- 
tents are ignored by the subscription (ver. 46, 47). 

24-28. Recapitulation. Eecapitulating first 
the quadrupeds already designated as not to be 



Ch. XI.] 



LEVITICUS 



53 



26 The carcases of every beast which divideth the 
hoof, and is uot clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, 
are unclean unto you : every one that toucheth 
them shall be unclean. 

27 And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among 
all manner of beasts that go on alL four, those art 
unclean unto you: whoso toucheth their carcase 
shall be unclean until the even. 

28 And he that beareth the carcase of them shall 
wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even : 
they are unclean unto you. 

29 These also shall he unclean unto you among 
the creeping things that creep upon the earth ; the 
weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his 
kind, 

30 And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the 
lizard, and tlie snail, and the mole. 

31 These are unclean to you among all that creep : 
whosoever doth touch them, when they be dead, 
shall be unclean until the even. 

32 And upon whatsoever any of them, when they 
are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean ; whether 
it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or 
sack, whatsoever vessel it be, wherein any work is 
done, it must be put into water, and it shall be 
unclean until the even ; so it shall be cleansed. 

33 And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of 
them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean ; 
and ye shall break it. 

34 Of all meat which maybe eaten, that on which 
such water cometh shall be unclean : and all drink 
that may be drunk in every such vessel shall be 
unclean. 

35 And every thing whereupon any part of their 
carcase falleth shall be unclean ; whether it he oven, 
or ranges for pots, they shall be broken down : for 
they are unclean, and shall be unclean unto you. 

36 Nevertheless a fountain or pit, wherein there 
is plenty of water, shall be clean : but that which 
toucheth their carcase shall be unclean. 

37 And if any part of their carcase fall upon any 
sowing seed which is to be sown, it shall he clean. 

38 But if any water be put upon the seed, and 
any part of their carcase fall thereon, it shall he 
unclean unto you. 

39 And if any beast, of which ye may eat, die ; 
he that touches the carcase thereof shall be unclean 
until the even. 

40 And he that eateth of the carcase of it shall 
wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even : 
he also that beareth the carcase of it shall wash 
his clothes, and be unclean until the even. 



26 clothes, and be unclean until the even. Every 
beast which parteth the hoof, and is not cloven- 
footed, nor cheweth the cud, is unclean unto 
you : every one that toucheth them shall be un- 

27 clean. And whatsoever goeth upon its paws, 
among all beasts that go on all four, they are 
unclean unto you : whoso toucheth their car- 

28 case shall be unclean until the even. And he 
that beareth the carcase of them shall wash his 
clothes, and be unclean until the even : they 
are unclean unto you. 

29 And these are they which are unclean unto 
you among the creeping things that creep upon 
the earth ; the weasel, and the mouse, and 

30 the great lizard after its kind, and the gecko, 
and the land crocodile, and the lizard, and the 

31 sand-lizard, and the chameleon. These are 
they which are unclean to you among all that 
creep : whosoever doth touch them, when they 

32 are dead, shall be unclean until the even. And 
upon whatsoever any of them, when they are 
dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it 
be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or 
sack, whatsoever vessel it be, wherewith any 
work is done, it must be put into water, and it 
shall be unclean until the even ; then shall it 

33 be clean. And every earthen vessel, whereinto 
any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be 

34 unclean, and it ye shall break. All food therein 
which may be eaten, that on which water com- 
eth, shall be unclean . and all drink that may 
be drunk in every such vessel shall be unclean. 

35 And every thing whereupon any part of their 
carcase falleth shall be unclean ; whether oven, 
or range for pots, it shall be broken in pieces : 
they are unclean, and shall be unclean unto 

36 you. Nevertheless a fountain or a pit wherein 
is a gathering of water shall be clean : but that 
which toucheth their carcase shall be unclean. 

37 And if aught of their carcase fall upon any sow- 

38 ing seed which is to be sown, it is clean. But if 
water be put upon the seed, and aught of their 
carcase fall thereon, it is unclean unto you. 

39 And if any beast, of which ye may eat, die ; 
he that toucheth the carcase thereof shall be 

40 unclean until the even. And he that eateth or 
the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be 
unclean until the even : he also that beareth 
the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be 
unclean until the even. 



eaten, the lawgiver goes on to make the regula- 
tion that whoever touches their carcases shall be 
unclean for the rest of the day, and the one who 
carries the dead body shall also wash his clothes. 
29-38. Then some of the smaller animals, 
whether quadrupeds or reptiles, such as are most 
likely to come in contact with food or domestic 
utensils in the houses are specified, and the treat- 
ment of the defilement which may be acci- 
dentally caused by them indicated. These 
animals are roughly classed as creeping or 
swarming things. The meaning of the Hebrew 
terms designating these animals is for the most 
part obscure, but the Revised version represents 
perhaps as high a degree of exactness as is at 
present attainable. The person who touched 
their dead bodies was to be unclean for the re- 
mainder of the day; any garment or vessel of 
wood, or skin or sack, on which they were found 
was to be soaked in water and witlilield from 



use as unclean for the day, while an earthen 
vessel was to be broken. A fountain or cistern 
in which a considerable quantity of water was 
stored could hardly be subjected as a constant 
practice to the minute inspection necessary to 
keep it rid of every small dead thing, and so 
was presumed in ordinary circumstances to be 
clean. Seed, except when saturated with defiled 
water, was considered clean. 39, 40. Finally 
it is specified that the person who touched the 
carcase — i. e., perhaps the body when not prop- 
erly slaughtered (see n : i5) — even of an animal 
which was allowed as food was to be unclean 
until evening, and if he had eaten of it or had 
carried it away he was in addition to wash his 
clothes. The regulation was made in the earlier 
part of the book (5 : 2) that these defilements, if 
inadvertent and so not followed by the guarded 
deportment of one consciously polluted, were on 
their discovery to be expiated by a sin oifering. 



54 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XII. 



41 And every creeping thing that creepeth upon 
the earth shall he an abomiuatiou ; it siiall not be 
eaten. 

42 Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and what- 
soever goeth upon ail four, or whatsoever hath 
more feet among all creeping thiijgs that creep 
upon the earth, them ye shall not eat ; for they are 
an abomination. 

43 Ye shall not make your selves abominable 
Avith any creeping thing that creepeth, neither 
shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that 
ye should be deliled thereby. 

44 For I am the Lord your God : ye shall there- 
fore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy ; for 
1 avi holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with 
any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon 
the earth. 

45 For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of 
the land of Egypt, to be your God : ye shall there- 
fore be holy, for I am holy. 

46 This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, 
and of every living creature that moveth in the 
waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon 
the earth : 

47 To make a difference between the unclean 
and the clean, and between the beast that may be 
eaten and the beast that may not be eaten. 



41 And every creeping thing that creepeth u] on 
the earih is an abomination; it shall n(<t be 

42 eaten. Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and 
whatsoever gc^eth upon all four, or whatsoever 
hath many feet, even all creeping things that 
creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat ; for 

43 they are an abomination. 'Ye shall not make 
yourselves abonnuable with any creeping thing 
that creepeth, jieither shall ye make yourselves 
unclean with them, that ye should be defiled 

44 thereby. For I am the Lord your God : sanctify 
yourselves therefore, and be ye holy ; for I am 
holy : neither shall ye defile yourselves witli 
any manner of creeping thing that moveth 

45 upon the earth. For 1 am the Lord that brought 
you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God : 
ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. 

46 'I his is the law of the beast, and of the fowl, 
and of every living creature that moveth in the 
waters, and of every creature that crec peih 

47 upon the earth: to make a difference between 
the unclean and the clean, and between the 
living thing that may be eaten and the living 
thing that may not be eaten. 



41-47. Creeping insects and reptiles; Sub- 
scription. The legislation now returns to the 
consideration of animals that are not to be eaten 
at all. Creeping insects and reptiles are called 
in the Hebrew, "swarming things that swarm 
upon the earth," and are thus distinguished 
from " swarming things of vring" considered in 
ver. 20-23. 42. These animals are totally pro- 
hibited as food, the legal and explicit descrip- 
tion of the prohibited kinds being whatsoever 
goeth upon the belly, as snakes and worms, 
Avhatsoever goeth on all four, i. e., prob- 
ably small quadrupeds like weasels and mice 
(see ver. 29) which are considered as vermin, and 
whatsover hath more, many, feet, like 
centipedes and caterpillars. 

The spiritual ground or motive of these dis- 
tinctions between clean and unclean was the 
general obligation of being holy as God is holy. 
The carefully cultivated abhorrence, particu- 
larly of slimy, swai-ming things, in the nation 
connected itself intimately with their notion of 
the divine purity. It gave them a conception 
of God's holiness Avhich derived its point and 
vividness from antagonism with all that is 
physically abominable. Their intense abhor- 
rence of the practices of surrounding nations in 
this regard (see isa. 65 : 4; 66 : 17) rendered their 
sense of the divine holiness also a sense of their 
own separateness from the other peoples of the 
earth, a separateness which these carefully 
guarded distinctions in food were intended to 
maintain (cf. lo : le; 20 : 25, 2$). The act of God 
in bringing them out of the land of Egypt — 
separating them from the nations (■*'er. 45) — is 
therefore cited as a prime motive for maintaining 
these distinctions. 



44, 45. These solemn sanctions, I am the 
Lord, . . be ye holy; for I am holy, 

are among the most characteristic marks of the 
law of holiness, that distinct and perhaps earlier 
stratum of the priest code beginning at chap. 17. 
These marks, with others which to trained ob- 
servation are hardly less distinctive, have led 
modern critics to regard this whole chapter, 
with the exception of the interpolated verses 
(24-40), as incoi'porated from that particular 
documentary source. 

It will be observed that the subscription or 
appended title strictly covers only the four 
classes of creatures that may not be eaten and 
ignores the contents of the inserted verses (2*-40)j 
which relate to creatures whose carcases are not 
to be touched. 



Chap. 12. PUKIFICATION AFTER CHILD- 
BIRTH. This chapter would more naturally 
follow chap. 15, with which it is connected in 
subject. The latter chapter as it now stands 
has no connection either with the preceding or 
following chapter, and if it were removed from 
its present position and placed before this chap- 
ter it would keep the three great classes of un- 
cleanness treated of in the priestly law grouped 
each by itself. Those three classes of unclean- 
ness are: (1) defilement from secretions, par- 
ticularly from the organs of generation (chap. 12, 
15) ; (2) uncleanness from leprosy (chap. 13, 14) , 
and (3) pollution from contact with a dead 
body. The last species of defilement is con- 
sidered in Num. 19. 

Those who would reduce the whole Hebrew 
idea of defilement to some connection with death 
and decomposition as repugnant to the Deity, 



Ch. XIL] 



LEVITICUS 



55 



just as holiness in an object results from some 
contact or union with the Deity, find a great 
deal of difficulty in bringing the impurity from 
childbirth under their category. This form of 
impurity connects itself with reproduction and 
life rather than with death. What there should 
be repugnant to Deity, as the source of life, in 
this natural process it is hard to see. But as a 
matter of fact, must we not find more in the 
Hebrew idea of death as opposed to God, than 
simply the thought of dissolution? May it not 
be an idea which includes all that is made nec- 
essary in the world by reason of the reign of 
death ? 

We have already seen that sin as an expiable 
condition was to the Hebrew mind a defilement 
hardly distinguished from a physical state. 
Moreover, to the one contemplating a higher de- 
gree of consecration as his chosen form of life, 
the merely natural state becomes sinful. " Crea- 
tural unsanctification and moral imperfection 
are not clearly separated. The heavens are not 
clean before God ; he findeth fault with his 
holy ones (Job i -. is, seq.). In the liturgical sphere 
of worship, indeed, the idea of creatural un- 
sanctification, of distance between Creator and 
creature, is the prevailing one" (Schultz). 
Now that this unsanctification, or impurity in 
the presence of ineffable holiness, connected it- 
self with the thought of death is undoubtedly 
true ; but the death thought of is death in the 
widest sense — the whole condition of being 
mortal. That condition was characterized just 
as much by the reproduction through which the 
fleeting generations were replaced, as by the dis- 
solution which removed them. To the poetic 
mind the intensest feeling of the divine dis- 
pleasure arose in connection with the thought 
of the contrast between the creatures of a day 
and the unchanging One who was their dwell- 
ing-place " in generation and generation." The 
author of the ninetieth Psalm can find but one 
meaning in the brevity of life, and that is the 
divine indignation. "All our days are passed 
away in thy Av rath : we finish our years like a 
sigh" (Ps. 90:9). In all this psalm, which is 
one prolonged breathing of tender penitence, 
there is but the slightest mention of personal 
iniquity, and that only as the concrete object of 
the divine omniscience. It is throughout a 
confession of transitoriness as subject to God's 
anger ; and it ends in the prayer for such per- 
manence as comes through what the ages ac- 
complish (ver. 17)^ if not through individual im- 
mortality. To the Hebrew thus imbued, in his 
inspired moments, with the thought of his crea- 



tural changeableness as hateful to God, the 
events of birth and death, and all connected 
with a mortal state, might equally be a reminder 
of that separation from God which is the penalty 
of sin, and might well become the occasion of 
ceremonial precautions and lustrations until the 
sense of cleanness before God should be restored. 

In that account of the origin of human sin 
which became incorporated into Hebrew belief 
as a part of primeval history (Gen. s)^ the state 
of guilt and shame following on the disobedience 
of the first pair is mysteriously and significantly 
connected with their sexual nature. They are 
threatened with death as the penalty of eating 
the fruit, and yet when they have transgressed 
they do not literally die but become sexually 
self-conscious. The sentence pronounced on the 
woman too, is a dooming to that pain in con- 
nection with childbirth which ever reminds the 
suffering mother that there is something abnor- 
mal and opposed to blessedness even in the act 
of bringing a new life into the world. The sen- 
tence, "Thou shalt surely die," must have 
meant, even to the remote author who could let 
it stand in his account without sense of contra- 
diction, "Thou shalt surely become mortal, sub- 
ject to the restless round of birth, change, and 
death, a petty contrast and abhorrence to the 
blessed life of the Eternal." Sin as death meant 
sin as mortality. That " creatural unsanctifica- 
tion " which was the basis of the sense of un- 
cleanness arose to consciousness not only through 
contact with death, or disease which might be 
taken as death in its inception, but through the 
natural operation, at least in the woman, of 
those laws of reproduction which are the con- 
comitant of human change. Hence the woman, 
on the occasion of childbirth, becomes subject 
to an uncleanness which requires lustration and 
sacrifice. 

" Uncleanness was generally ascribed to child- 
birth, according to the usages of the most an- 
cient nations." The Hindus, Parsees, Arabs, 
Greeks, and Romans had regulations requiring 
purification on the part of the mother, and the 
imputation of impurity sometimes extended to 
the whole family. In almost all cases too, the 
period of forty days was regarded as a critical 
interval (cf. ver. 2, 4) in connection with the 
event. 

The impurity from secretions which attached 
to the male (see chap. 15) was reckoned only in 
connection with an accidental or morbid dis- 
charge, and the feeling of uncleanness could 
porha])S be accounted for by the natural disgust 
at having the substance in contact with the 



56 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XIII. 



CHAPTER XII. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, if a 
woman have conceived seed, and born a man 
child : then she shall be unclean seven days ; ac- 
cording to the days of the separation for her in- 
firmity shall she be unclean. 

3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin 
shall be circumcised. 

4 And she shall then continue in the blood of 
her purifying three and thirty days ; she shall 
touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanc- 
tuary, until the days of her purifying be fultilled. 

5 But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be 
unclean two weeks, as in her separation : and she 
shall continue in the blood of her purifying three- 
score and six days. 

6 And when the days of her purifying are ful- 
filled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a 
lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a 
young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, 
unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, 
unto the priest : 

7 Who shall offer it before the Lord, and make 
an atonement for her ; and she shall be cleansed 
from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her 
that hath born a male or a female. 

8 And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then 
she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons ; 
the one for the burnt offering, and the other for 
a sin offering : and the priest shall make an atone- 
ment for her, and she shall be clean. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying. If a 
woman conceive seed, and bear a man child, 
then she shall be unclean seven days ; as in the 
days of the impurity of her sickness shall she 

3 be unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh of 

4 his foreskin shall be circumcised. And slie 
shall continue in the blood of her purifying 
three and thirty days ; she shall touch no hal- 
lowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until 

5 the days of her purifying be fulfilled. But 
if she bear a maid child, then she shall be un- 
clean two weeks, as in her impurity : and she 
shall continue in the blood of her purifying 

6 threescore and six days. And when the days of 
her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a 
daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first 
year for a burnt offeiing, and a young pigeon, 
or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door 
of the tent of meeting, unto the priest : and 

7 he shall offer it before the Lord, and make 
atonement for her ; and she shall be cleansed 
from the fountain of her blood. This is the law 
for her that beareth, whether a male or a female. 

8 And if her means suffice not for a lamb, then 
she shall take two turtledoves, or two young 
pigeons ; the one for a burnt offering, and the 
other for a sin offering : and the priest shall 
make atonement for her, and she shall be clean. 



skin or clothing ; but the woman was made un- 
clean by the natural infirmity of her sex and by 
the normal function of motherhood, as if her 
act of visibly producing new life were second 
only to death and decay as a reminder of that 
mortality which is the greatest contrast to the 
God who ever lives. 

1. Unto Moses, instead of to Moses and 
Aaron as in the preceding and following chap- 
ters. 2. According to the days of the 
separation for her infirmity presupposes 
a knowledge of the regulation in 15 : 19. For 
seven days, in the case of a boy baby, the 
woman was "unclean," i. e., in such a state as 
to communicate defilement to whatever she 
touched. 4. For thirty-three days thereafter 
she was in the blood of her purifying, and 
was debarred from touching any sanctified thing 
or coming into the sanctuary. The boundary 
between the period of uncleanness and that of 
purifying w^as marked by the circumcision of 
the child on the eighth day (see Gen. n : lo, is). In 
the case of a female child the period of "un- 
cleanness" and of the "blood of purifying" 
was doubled. The iiotion seems to have been 
common in ancient times that a woman suffered 
longer after the birth of a girl than after that of 
a boy. On the completion of the days of puri- 
fying, whether for a boy or a girl, a sacrifice 
was to be brought consisting of a lamb, a son of 
his year, for a burnt offering, and a young 
pigeon or a turtle-dove for a sin offering. The 
degree of sinfulness implied seems to be light. 



In the case of poverty even the lamb might be 
replaced by another turtle-dove or young pigeon. 
In the time of Christ it was either customary to 
dispense with the lamb of the burnt offering, or 
else the mother of our Lord was compelled by 
her poverty to content herself with the less 
expensive sacrifice (see Luke 2 : 24). 



Chap. 13. Leprosy. 1-46. Diagnosis of 
leprosy in man. " The leprosy is the most ter- 
rible of all the disorders to which the body of 
man is subject. There is no disease in which 
hope of recovery is so nearly extinguished. 
From a commencement slight in appearance, 
with but little pain or inconvenience, often in 
its earlier stage insidiously disappearing and 
reappearing, it goes on in its strong but sluggish 
course, generally in defiance of the efforts of 
medical skill, until it reduces the patient to a 
mutilated cripple with dulled or obliterated 
senses, the voice turned to a croak, and ghastly 
deformity of features. When it reaches some 
vital part it generally occasions what seem like 
the symptoms of a distinct disease (most often 
dysentery), and so puts an end to the life of the 
sufferer." 

The Hebrew term, H^^'^V, tsdra'ath, used in 
this chapter, is considered by the best authori- 
ties to refer not to common leprosy ( lepra vul- 
garis), which is a different and far more super- 
ficial disease, as indicated in ver. 12, 13, but to 
what is known to physicians as elephantiasis. 
Of this two forms are distinguished, the tuber- 



Ch. XIII.] 



LEVITICUS 



57 



CHAPTER XIII. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, 
saying, 

2 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh 
a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the 
skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy ; then he 
shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one 
of his sons the priests : 

3 And the priest shall look on the plague in the 
skin of the flesh : and when the hair in the plague 
is turned white, and the plague in sight he deeper 
than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy : 
and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce 
him unclean. 

4 If the bright spot he white in the skin of his 
flesh, and in sight he not deeper than the skin, and 
the hair thereof be not turned white ; then the 
priest shall shut up him thai hath the plague seven 
days: 

5 And the priest shall look on him the seventh 
day : and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a 
stay, and the plague spread not in the skin ; then 
the priest shall shut him up seven days more : 

6 And the priest shall look on him again the 
seventh day : and, behold, if the plague be some- 
what dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, 
the priest shall pronounce him clean : it is hut a 
scab : and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. 

7 But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, 
after that he hath been seen of the priest for his 
cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again : 

8 And if the priest see that, behold, the scab 
spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pro- 
nounce him unclean : it is a leprosy. 

9 When the plague of leprosy is in a man, then 
he shall be brought unto the priest ; 

10 And the priest shall see him : and, behold, if 
the rising he white in the skin, and it have turned 
the hair white, and there he quick raw flesh in the 
rising ; 

11 It is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh, and 
the priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall 
not shut him up : for he is unclean. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 

2 Aaron, saying. When a man shall have in the 
skin of his flesh a rising, or a scab, or a bright 
spot, and it become in the skin of his flesh the 
plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought unto 
Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the 

3 priests : and the priest shall look on the plague 
in the skin of the flesh : and if the hair in the 
plague be turned white, and the appearance of 
the plague be deeper than the skin of his flesh, 
it is the plague of leprosy : and the priest shall 

4 look on him, and pronounce him unclean. And 
if the bright spot be white in the skin of his 
flesh, and the appearance thereof be not deeper 
than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned 
white, then the priest shall shut up him that hath 

5 the plague seven days : and the priest shall look 
on him the seventh day : and, behold, if in his 
eyes the plague be at a stay, and the plague be 
not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut 

6 him up seven days more : and the priest shall 
look on him again the seventh day : and, be- 
hold, if the plague be dim, and the plague be 
not spread in ttie skin, then the priest shall pro- 
nounce him clean : it is a scab : and he shall 

7 wash his clothes, and be clean. But if the scab 
spread abroad in the skin, after that he hath 
shewn himself to the priest for his cleansing, he 

8 shall shew himself to the priest again : and the 
priest shall look, and, behold, if the scab be 
spread in the skin, then the priest shall pro- 
nounce him unclean : it is leprosy. 

9 When the plague of leprosy is in a man, then 

10 he shall be brought unto the priest; and the 
priest shall look, and, behold, if there be a 
white rising In the skin, and it have turned the 
hair white, and there be quick raw flesh in the 

11 rising, it is an old leprosy in the skin of his 
flesh, and the priest shall pronounce him un- 
clean : he shall not shut liim up ; for he is 



culated elephantiasis, and the ansesthetic or non- 
tuberculated elephantiasis, the former being 
characterized by the formation of tubercles in 
the face or other parts of the body, and later by 
a swollen and horribly deformed appearance of 
the face with its livid, encrusted, and ulcerated 
tubercles, and the latter by often breaking out in 
shining hiillce in the forehead (2 Chron. 26 .- 19, 20) and 
afterward' attacking the joints and making them 
devoid of sensation, and finally causing fingers 
and toes and even limbs gradually to drop off. 
The former is sometimes called humid or black 
leprosy, and the latter dry or white leprosy. 
The tuberculated form is at the present day the 
most common in Egypt and Syria, though the 
two in many cases work together. 

1-8, First viarks of leprosy . The features of 
the disease described here in Leviticus are not 
the advanced and developed characteristics, but 
the symptoms belonging to its earlier stages, 
and while its presence is a matter of doubt. 
2. The first appearance which calls for the at- 
tention of the priest is a rising, i. e., inflamed 
patch, or a scab or cicatrix, or a bright, or, 
glossy, spot. If on examination the priest finds 
the hair on this spot to have turned white and 



its appearance to be deeper than the surface or 
scarf skin, the case is at once decided ; the priest 
is to pronounce him unclean. If, however, these 
two decisive marks are wanting, it is a case of 
doubt, and the priest is to shut up the patient 
for seven days. If at the end of that time the 
disease does not seem to have advanced, the 
priest is required to shut him up seven days 
more. If on the second examination the plague 
has grown somewhat faint or dim the priest 
pronounces the person clean ; it is only a com- 
mon scab ; but if the disease has advanced much 
in the skin it is leprosy. 

9-11. Confirmed leprosy. The case here 
contemplated seems to be that of a person who 
has deferred showing himself to the priest until 
the disease has reached a more advanced stage. 
10. The decisive mark is quick raw flesh, 
lit., the quickening of living flesh, in the rising. 
This may refer to an ulcer or open sore with 
" proud flesh" in it, or it may refer to the ex- 
cessive tenderness of the bulla in anesthetic 
elephantiasis before it becomes insensible. 11. 
Shall not shut him up, i. e., shall not sub- 
ject him to the periods of quarantine for purposes 
of examination. 



58 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XIII. 



12 And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, 
and tiie leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath 
the plague from his head even to his foot, where- 
soever the priest looketh ; 

13 Then the priest shall consider : and, behold, 
if the leprosy have covered ail his flesh, he shall 
pronounce him clean that hath the plague : it is all 
turned white : he is clean. 

14 But when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall 
be unclean. 

15 And the priest shall see the raw flesh, and pro- 
nounce him to be unclean : for the raw flesh is un- 
clean : it is a leprosy. 

16 Or if the raw flesh turn again, and be changed 
unto white, he shall come unto the priest ; 

17 And the priest shall see him : and, behold, if 
the plague be turned into white ; then the priest 
shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague : he 
is clean. 

18 The flesh also, in which, even in the skin there- 
of, was a boil, and is healed, 

ly And in the place of the boil there be a white 
rising, or a bright spot, white, and somewhat 
reddish, and it be shewed to the priest ; 

20 And if, when the priest seeth it, behold, it &e 
in sight lower than the skin, and the hair thereof 
be turned white ; the priest shall pronounce him 
unclean : it is a plague of leprosy broken out of the 
boil. 

21 But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there 
he no white hairs therein, and if itbe not lower than 
the skin, but he somewhat dark ; then the priest 
shall shut him up seven days : 

22 And if it spread much abroad in the skin, then 
the priest shall pronounce him unclean : it is a 
plague. 

23 But if the bright spot stay in his place, and 
spread not, it is a burning boil ; and the priest shall 
pronounce him clean. 

24 Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof 
there is a hot burning, and the quick flesh that 
burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat red- 
dish, or white ; 

25 Then the priest shall look upon it : and, be- 
hold, ?/the hair in the bright spot be turned white, 
and it hein sight deeper than the skin ; it is a lep- 
rosy broken out of the burning : wherefore the 
priest shall pronounce him unclean : It is the 
plague of leprosy. 

26 But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there 
he no white hair in the bright spot, and it he no 
lower than the other skin, but he somewhat dark ; 
then the priest shall shut him up seven days : 

27 And the priest shall look upon him the seventh 
day : and if it be spread much abroad in the skin, 
then the priest shall pronounce him unclean : it is 
the plague of leprosy. 

28 And if the bright spot stay in his place, and 
spread not in the skin, but it be somewhat dark ; 
it is a rising of the burning, and the priest shall 
pronounce him clean : for it is an inflammation of 
the burning. 



12 unclean. And if the leprosy break out abroad in 
the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of 
hiin that hath the plague from his head even to 

13 his feet, as far as appeareth to the priest ; then 
the priest shall look : and, behold, if the leprosy 
have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce 
him clean that hath the plague : it is all turned 

14 white : he is clean. But whensoever raw flesli 

15 appeareth in him, he shall be unclean. And the 
priest shall look on the raw flesh, and pronounce 
him unclean : the raw flesh is unclean : it is 

16 leprosy. Or if the raw flesh turn again, and be 
changed unto white, then he shall come unto 

17 the priest, and the priest shall look on him : 
and, behold, if the plague be turned into white, 
then the priest shall pronounce him clean that 
hath the plague : he is clean. 

18 And when the flesh hath in the skin thereof a 

19 boil, and it is healed, and in the place of the 
boil there is a white rising, or a bright spot, red- 
dish-white, then it shall be shewed to the priest ; 

20 and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the ap- 
pearance thereof be lower than the skin, and 
the hair thereof be turned white, then the prie.^t 
shall pronounce him unclean : it is the plague 

21 of leprosy, it hath broken out in the boil. But 
if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no 
white hairs therein, and it be not lower than 
the skin, but be dim, then the priest shall shut 

22 him up seven days : and if it spread abroad in 
the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him 

23 unclean : it is a plague. But if the bright .«;pot 
stay in its place, and be not spread, it is the scar 
of the boil ; and the priest shall pronounce him 
clean. 

24 Or when the flesh hath in the skin thereof a 
burning by Are, and the quick flesh of the burn- 
ing become a bright spot, reddish-white, or 

25 white; then the priest shall look upon it: and, 
behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned 
white, and the appearance thereof be deeper 
than the skin ; it is leprosy, it hath broken out 
in the burning : and the priest shall pronounce 

26 him unclean : it is the plague of leprosy. But if 
the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no 
white hair in the bright spot, and it be no lower 
than the skin, but be dim ; then the priest shall 

27 shut him up seven days : and the priest shall 
look upon him the seventh day : if it spread 
abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pro- 
nounce him unclean : it is the plague of leprosy. 

28 And if the bright spot stay in its place, and be 
not spread in the skin, but be dim ; it is the ris- 
ing of the burning, and the priest shall pro- 
nounce him clean : for it is the scar of the 
burning. 



12-17. Common leprosy. An eruption which 
has so spread as to cover the whole body, turn- 
ing it white, and yet without any raw flesh or 
ulcers appearing anywhere on the surface, can- 
not be true elephantiasis. It is only a case of 
lepra vulgaris, or dry tetter, "which, although 
an afiection often of long duration, frequently 
disappears spontaneously, and is never malig- 
nant." If, however, the ulcers at any time ap- 
pear, unless they prove only temporary, they 
are to be taken as indications of true leprosy, 
thus rendering the patient unclean. 

18-28. Special ca^es of leprosy. The first 
case noticed in this passage is T^vhere an ulcer 



has healed leaving a scar ; or perhaps where, as 
sometimes happens, the tubercles or bullce of 
elephantiasis itself seem to subside and leave a 
scar, and in the scar appears a rising or w^hite 
or reddish spot. The decisive mark in this, as 
in all other cases, is the presence of white hairs 
in the rising or spot and its appearing deeper 
than the scarf skin. This at once decides it as 
leprosy. Where this mark does not occur an- 
other sign is looked for after the patient has 
been secluded for seven days, namely, whether 
the disease advances. If not, the priest is to 
consider it simply the scar of the ulcer ; but if it 
does, the patient is pronounced unclean. 



Ch. XIII.] 



LEVITICUS 



59 



29 If a man or woman have a plague upon the 
head or the beard ; 

90 Then the priest shall see the plague : and, he- 
hold, if it be in sight deeper than the skiu ; and there 
be in it a yellow thin hair ; then the priest shall 
pronounce him unclean : it is a dry scall, even a 
leprosy upon the head or beard. 

31 And if the priest look on the plague of the 
scall, and, behold, it be not in the sight deeper than 
the skin, and that there is no black liair in it ; then 
the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague of 
the scall seven days : 

32 And in the seventh day the priest shall look 
on the plague : and, behold, if the scall spread not, 
and there be in it no yellow hair, and the scall be 
not in sight deeper than the skin ; 

33 He shall be shaven, but the scall shall he not 
shave ; and the priest shall shut up him that hath 
the scall seven days more : 

34 And in the seventh day the priest shall look 
on the scall : and, behold, if the scall be not spread 
in the skin, nor be in sight deeper than the skin ; 
then the priest shall pronounce him clean : and he 
shall wash his clothes, and be clean. 

35 But if the scall spread much in the skin after 
his cleansing ; 

36 Then the priest shall look on him : and, be- 
hold, if the scall be spread in the skin, the priest 
shall not seek for yellow hair ; he is unclean. 

37 But if the scall be in his sight at a stay, and 
that there is black hair grown up therein ; the scall 
is healed, he is clean : and the priest shall pro- 
nounce him clean. 

38 If a man also or a woman have in the skin of 
their flesh bright spots, even white bright spots ; 

39 Then the priest shall look : and, behold, 2/ the 
bright spots in the skin of their flesh be darkish 
white ; it is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin ; 
he is clean. 

40 And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, 
he is bald ; yet is he clean. 

41 And he that hath his hair fallen off from the 
part of his head toward his face, he is forehead 
bald : yet is he clean. 

42 And if there be in the bald head, or bald fore- 
head, a white reddish sore ; it is a leprosy sprung 
up in his bald head, or his bald forehead. 

43 Then the priest shall look upon it : and, be- 
hold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish in 
his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the lep- 
rosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh ; 



29 And when a man or woman hath a plague 

30 upon the head or upon the beard, then the priest 
shall look on the plague : and, behold, if tlie 
appearance thereof be deeper than the skin, and 
there be in it yellow thiu hair, then the priest 
shall pronounce him unclean : it is a scall, it is 

31 leprosy of the head or of the beard. And if the 
priest look on the plague of the scall, and, be- 
hold, the appearance thereof be not deeper than 
the skin, and there be no black hair in it, then the 
priest shall shut up Aim that hath the plague of the 

32 scall seven days : and in the seventh day the 
priest shall look on the plague: and, behold, if 
the scall be not spread, and there be in it no 
yellow hair, and the appearance of the scall be 

33 not deeper than the skin, then he shall be 
shaven, but the scall shall he not shave ; and 
the priest shall shut up him that hath the scall 

34 seven days more: and in the seventh day the 
priest shall look on the scall: and, behold, if 
the scall be not spread in the skin, and the ap- 
pearance thereof be not deeper than the skin ; 
then the priest shall pronounce him clean : and 

35 he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. But if 
the scall spread abroad in the skin after his 

36 cleansing ; then the priest shall look on him : 
and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, 
the priest shall not seek for the yellow hair ; he 

37 is unclean. But if in his eyes the scall be at a 
stay, and black hair be grown up therein ; the 
scall is healed, he is clean : and the priest shall 
pronounce him clean. 

38 And when a man or a woman hath in the skin 
of their flesh bright spots, even white bright 

39 spots ; then the priest shall look : and, behold, 
if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be of 
a dull white; it is a tetter, it hath broken out 
in the skin ; he is clean. 

40 And if a man's hair be fallen off his head, he 

41 is bald ; yet is he clean. And if his hair be fallen 
off from the front part of his head, he is forehead 

42 bald ; yet is he clean. But if there be in the bald 
head, or the bald forehead, a reddish-white 
plague ; it is leprosy breaking out in his bald 

43 head, or his bald forehead. Then the priest 
shall look upon him : and, behold, if the rising 
of the plague be reddish-white in his bald head, 
or in his bald forehead, as the appearance of 



The second case is that of a rising or white or 
reddish spot appearing in a simple burn, or per- 
haps in a spot affected by inflammation result- 
ing from disease or injury. The diagnosis is 
made precisely as in the other case ; it being 
noticeable that in both of the cases mentioned 
here only a single period of quarantine is 
appointed instead of two. 

29-37. Leprosy upon the head or chin. 
This form of leprosy was distinguished from 
leprosy in other parts of the body under the 
name, pHJ, nHhSq, somewhat inexactly trans- 
lated in our version scall. Its chief features are 
like those of ordinary elephantiasis, the morbid 
affection of the whole depth of the skin and the 
yellow or whitish hairs. It is recognized by 
modern writers under the name of fox mange. 
It seems somewhat less formidable than ordi- 
nary elephantiasis, because it not infrequently 
passes away after a period of nionths or years. 
In making his diagnosis the priest, as in ordi- 



nary cases, was to look for an affection deeper 
than the skin and for yellowish or whitish hairs. 
If these did not appear the person was to be 
isolated for seven days, and if at the end of that 
time the spot still remained without those de- 
cisive signs he was to be shaven without shaving 
the nStheq. At the end of this second period, if 
the decisive marks were still absent, he might 
be definitely pronounced clean ; but if the 
plague spread in the skin the patient was to be 
pronounced unclean even without the search for 
yellow hairs. In ver. 31 it is probable that tlie 
reading ought to be corrected to yelloiv hair, as 
in the Septuagint. 

38, 39. Tetter, In these verses is described 
the harmless V'r\'2, hohdq, still called by the 
same name among the modern Arabs, and by 
them considered harmless. It is a kind of ec- 
zema, which causes little or no inconvenience 
and lasts from two months to two years. 

40-44. Leprosy in the bald head. This 



60 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XIII. 



44 He is a leprous man, he is unclean : the priest 
shall pronounce him utterly unclean ; his plague is 
in his head. 

45 And the leper in whom the plague is, his 
clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he 
shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall 
cry. Unclean, unclean. 

4t> All the days wherein the plague shall be in him 
he shall be defiled ; he is unclean : he shall dwell 
alone ; without the camp shall his habitation be. 

47 The garment also that the plague of leprosy is 
in, whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen gar- 
ment ; 

48 Whether it be in the warp, or woof ; of linen, 
or of woollen ; whether in a skin, or in any thing 
made of skin ; 

49 And if the plague be greenish or reddish in the 
garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in 
the woof, or in any thing of skin ; itzs a plague of 
leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest : 

50 And the priest shall look upon the plague, and 
shut up it that hath the plague seven days : 

51 And he shall look on the plague on the seventh 
day : if the plague be spread in the garment, either 
in the warp, or in the woof, or in a skin, or in 
any work that is made of skin ; the plague is a 
fretting leprosy ; it is unclean. 



44 leprosy in the skin of the flesh ; he is a leprous 
man, he is uncleun : the priest shall surely pro- 
nounce him unclean ; his plague is in his head. 

45 And the leper in whom the plague is, his 
clothes shall be rent, and the hair of his head 
shall go loose, and he shall cover his upper lip, 

46 and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days 
wherein the plague is in him he shall be un- 
clean ; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; 
without the camp shall his dwelling be. 

47 The garment also that the plague of leprosy is 
in, whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen 

48 garment; whether it be in warp, or woof; of 
linen, or of woollen; whether in a skin, or in 

49 any thing made of skin ; if the plague be green- 
ish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, or 
in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of 
skin ; it is the plague of leprosy, and shall be 

50 shewed unto the priest : and the priest shall 
look upon the plague, and shut up that which 

51 hath the plague seven days : and he shall look 
on the plague on the seventh day : if the plague 
be spread in the garment, either in the warp, or 
in the woof, or in the skin, whatever service 
skin is used for ; the plague is a fretting leprosy ; 



introduction of leprosy of the bald head or the 
bald forehead as a separate case occurs appar- 
ently in order to give the assurance that bald- 
ness in itself is not a mark of unclean disease, 
but that the appearance of leprosy in the bald 
head or the bald forehead will be treated as in 
ordinary cases. 

45, 46. The law for the confirmed leper. 
The leper seems to have been considered as one 
upon whom death had got hold, and he therefore 
bore the usual marks of mourning for the dead 
(seeEzek. 24 : 17). " Let her not be as one dead," 
cried Aaron to the Lord regarding his leprous 
sister Miriam (Num. 12:12). The object of the 
separation of the leper from the common inter- 
course of life, which has been a practice com- 
mon to nearly all nations and ages, does not 
seem to have been primarily sanitary. Leprosy 
is only very slightly contagious, if at all. But 
the leper, especially as his disease advanced, 
became a loathsome and hideous sight — a living 
example of death in life. The stroke was looked 
upon as a direct visitation of God. It was be- 
cause Job regarded his sudden affliction of ele- 
phantiasis as God directly punishing him that 
the visitation seemed ethically so monstrous. It 
was because his friends felt him to be an object 
of divine resentment that they so zealously urged 
him to repent and make his peace with God. The 
hideousness and loathsomeness of the disease was 
a sort of symbol of the loathsomeness of moral 
depravity. The affliction was regarded by the 
Jews as distinctively an uncleanness rather than 
a disease — a polluting thing like death. Lepers 
were counted as rendering everything unclean 
by contact. In their isolated life in modern Syria 
the lepers form communities (comp. 2 Kings 7:3; 



Luke 17 : 12)^ often with a simple form of organiza- 
tion; and their participation in dreadful mis- 
fortune SAvallows up all differences as between 
Moslem and Christian (comp. Luke 17 : le). 

47-59. Leprosy in clothing and leather. 
Wool and flax were the most common materials 
for garments among the Hebrews (Hosea 2:9; Prov. 
31:13). As to the warp and woof being distin- 
guishable in any spot which might appear in a 
garment (see ver. 48) the following note from the 
Polychrome Bible seems reasonable : "It has 
been objected that there was no reason why the 
warp and the woof should be distinguished here, 
and that one could not be affected without the 
other. But it is a very common thing for the 
woof of cloth to be so thick, that a spot on it 
would not touch the warp-thread at all, and vice 
versa. Or the direction in which the spot seemed 
to run, would be taken as indicating that the 
evil was in the warp or in the woof, as the case 
might be." A greenish or reddish plague in 
clothing or leather was to be shown to the priest. 
The priest shut it up seven days, and if at the 
end of that period the plague was found to have 
spread, the article was at once to be burned. If 
it had not spread, the suspected article, after 
washing, was to be shut up seven days more. 
At the end of that time if the plague appeared 
faint the priest was to tear it out of the garment, 
but if it still presented its original appearance 
the article was to be burned. If, on the other 
hand, the plague had entirely disappeared the 
article was to be thoroughly washed the second 
time and pronounced clean. 

This form of plague in clothing when it was 
confirmed was called a malignant or fretting lep- 
rosy (ver. 51, 52), What was its nature cannot be 



Ch. XIV.] 



LEVITICUS 



61 



52 He shall therefore burn that garment, whether 
warp or woof, in woollen or in linen, or any tiling 
of skin, wherein the plague is: for it i&' a fretting 
leprosy ; it shall be burnt in the fire. 

53 And if the priest shall look, and, behold, the 
plague be not spread in the garment, either in the 
warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin ; 

54 Then the priest shall command that they wash 
the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it 
up seven days more : 

55 And the priest shall look on the plague, after 
ttiat it is washed : and, behold, if the plague have 
not changed his colour, and the plague be noc 
spread ; it is unclean ; thou shalt burn it in the 
fire ; it is fret inward, whether it he bare within or 
without. 

56 And if the priest look, and, behold, the plague 
he somewhat dark after the washing of it ; then he 
shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the skin, 
or out of the warp, or out of the woof : 

57 And if it appear still in the garment, either in 
the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin ; 
it is a spreading plague: thou shaft burn that 
wherein the plague is with fire. 

58 And the garment, either warp, or woof, or 
whatsoever thing of skin it he, which thou shalt 
wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it 
shall be washed the second time, and shall be 
clean. 

59 This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a 
garment of woollen or linen, either in the warp, or 
woof, or any thing of skins, to pronounce it clean, 
or to pronounce it unclean. 



52 it is unclean. And he shall burn the garment, 
whether the warp or the woof, in woollen or 
in linen, or any thing of skin, wherein the 
plague is : for it is a fretting leprosy ; it shall be 

53 iDurnt in the fire. And if the priest shall look, 
and, behold, the plague be not spread in the gar- 
ment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in 

54 any thing of skin ; then the priest shall com- 
mand that they wash the thing wherein the 
plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more: 

55 and the priest shall look, after that the plague 
is washed : and, behold, if the plague have not 
changed its colour, and the plague be not spread, 
it is unclean ; thou shalt burn it in the fire : it 
is a fi'et, whether the bareness be within or with- 

56 out. And if the priest look, and, behold, the 
plague be dim after the washing thereof, then 
he shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the 

57 skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof : and 
if it appear still in the garment, either in the 
warp, or in the woof, or in anything of skin, 
it is breaking out : thou shalt burn that wherein 

58 the plague is with fire. And the garment, either 
the warp, or the woof, or whatsoever thing of 
skin it be, which thou shalt wash, if the plague 
be departed from them, then it shall be washed 

59 the second time, and shall be clean. This is the 
law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of 
woollen or linen, either in the warp, or the 
woof, or anything of skin, to pronounce it clean, 
or to pronounce it unclean. 



precisely determined, but it was probably some 
kind, or perhaps more than one kind, of destruc- 
tive mildew. There is nothing said about its 
causing any contagion of leprosy to the person 
wearing the garment, and the reason for such 
solemn and severe treatment of a mere article of 
clothing, and indeed the whole subject, is ob- 
scure. It is to be observed that no religious or 
symbolical rite is prescribed in connection with 
leprosy in clothing, as in the case of persons, 
and even houses (I'i : 49-53). 



Chap. 14, The purification of the 
LEPER. If we may gauge the importance of 
the uncleanness by the minuteness of the rites 
which follow restoration, we should estimate 
that leprosy was regarded as the most momen- 
tous of all defilements. Perhaps some of this 
minuteness of ceremonial may be due to the ex- 
treme rarity of a case of restoration. That a 
special signification was attached to this par- 
ticular form of uncleanness is evident not only 
from the rigid exclusion and funereal behavior 
of the patient, suggestive of death, but from the 
peculiar nature of the ceremonies connected with 
recovery. That the person was regarded as 
having been under the direct judgment and in- 
dignation of God is indicated by the guilt offer- 
ing which was prescribed, as if for crime or de- 
linquency. That the diseased state was thought 
of as having a special effect on the ecclesiastical 
or priestly standing of the person as a member 
of the sanctified nation is suggested by the cere- 



mony of consecration with blood applied to ear, 
hand, and foot, like that of the priests. Or 
possibly such a priestly form of consecration 
may suggest the special gratitude of one who, in 
being restored from leprosy, has been virtually 
raised from the dead, and thus bound by incredi- 
ble divine mercy to a life of the highest sanctity. 
The use of two victims, also, a dead and allying 
one, to suggest the cleansing and the carrying 
away of the uncleanness, was a ceremony of 
special solemnity only paralleled by the scape- 
goat ceremony of the great Day of Atonement. 
No other form of sin or uncleanness re- 
quired purificatory rites in any Avay approach- 
ing these in elaborateness and variety of sug- 
gested meanings. 

The later rabbinical refinements on these 
regulations placed especial restrictions on the 
priest in his examination of the restored person 
preparatory to pronouncing him clean. The 
examination was not to take place on the Sab- 
bath, nor in the early morning, nor in the late 
afternoon, nor inside a house, nor on a cloudy 
day, nor in the glare of midday ; and the priest 
must have good eyesight and only deternvlne 
one case at a time, and he was not allowed to 
pass judgment on one of his own kindred. Such 
evident fear of the possibility of admitting a 
man to the privileges of ordinary life who was 
not \vorthy of them shows that the development 
of the Jewish conscience, under the influence of 
ceremonialism, was predominantly in the direc- 
tion of intolerance of defilement, rather than in 



62 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XIV. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of 
his cleansing : He shall be brought unto the priest : 

3 And the priest shall go forth out of the camp ; 
and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague 
of leprosy be healed in the leper ; 

4 Then shall the priest command to take for him 
that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and 
cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop : 

5 And the priest shall command that one of the 
birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running 
water: 

6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the 
cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and 
shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of 
the bird that was killed over the running water : 

7 And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be 
cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall 
pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird 
loose into the open field. 

8 And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his 
clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash him- 
self in water, that he may be clean : and after that 
he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad 
out of his tent seven days. 

9 But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall 
shave all his hair oH his head and his beard and 
his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: 
and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash 
his flesh in water, and he shall be clean. 

10 And on the eighth day he shall take two he 
lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the 
first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of 
fine hour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and 
one log of oil. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of 
his cleansing : he shall be brought unto the 

3 priest : and the priest shall go forth out of the 
camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if 
the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper ; 

4 then shall the priest command to take for him 
that is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and 

5 cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: and the 
priest shall command to kill one of the birds in 

6 an earthen vessel over running water : as for the 
living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, 
and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip 
them and the living bird in the blood of the 
bird that was killed over the running water: 

7 and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be 
cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall 
pronounce him clean, and shall let go the living 

8 bird into the open field. And he that is to be 
cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off 
all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he 
shall be clean : and after that he shall come into 
the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven 

9 days. And it shall be on the seventh day, that 
he shall shave all his hair off his head and his 
beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he 
shall shave off : and he shall wash his clothes, 
and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and he 

10 shall be clean. And on the eighth day he shall 
take two he-lambs without blemish, and one 
ewe-lamb of the first year without blemish, and 
three tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour for a 
meal offering, mingled with oil, and one log of 



the more positive direction of encouragement to 
sanctity. 

1-3. This seems to be addressed to Moses 
alone. 2. Brought unto the priest, i. e., 

to a rendezvous without the camp where the 
priest could meet and examine him. The cere- 
mony of cleansing was two-fold, the one part be- 
ing without the camp and qualifying the re- 
stored man to come within the camp and mingle 
with his brethren, while the second part, per- 
formed in the court of the tabernacle, restored 
the man to sanctuary privileges. 

4-8. The rites performed without the camp. 
The two birds — D'"^i3y, tsipporim, a term cover- 
ing any of the smaller birds — were provided by 
the priest and were not a sacrifice in the strict 
sense of the word, as they were not brought to 
the altar. The water and scarlet and hyssop 
are mentioned by the author of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews (Heb. 9 : i9, 20) in describing the rite 
spoken of in Exod. 24 : 6, and the three sub- 
stances here named seemed to have been much 
used in rites of purification. The scarlet was 
probably a band of wool dyed with "worm- 
crimson," with which the cedar and the hyssop 
were tied together. There is much ditFerence of 
opinion as to what plant is meant by the He- 
brew word ^1^, 'ezobh, Greek, vo-o-toTros^ or hyssop. 
It was the plant with which the blood of the 
paschal lamb was sprinkled on the door-post 



(Exod. 12 : 22) ; it was a plant of low growth, 
furnishing a contrast to the cedar of Lebanon, 
and it grew on walls (1 Kings 4 : 33), and yet ac- 
cording to John 19 : 29 its stem might be a stick 
of considerable length. It was probably either 
the caper plant, or still more likely, the plant 
found in Syria classified as origanum maru. 

The two birds perhaps symbolized the leper 
in his state of defilement, or constructive death, 
and in his restoration ; or, more likely, they 
may have been the double means of enacting the 
cleansing of the leper and the carrying away of 
the divine displeasure. There is only one other 
ceremony mentioned in the law where two 
creatures, a slain and a living one, go to make 
up a single type, and that is the ceremony of 
the two sacrificial goats on the Day of Atone- 
ment (see 16 : 5,7-10). 

9-32. The rites in the court of the taher- 
nacle. The restored man prepared himself for 
these rites by shaving all the hair ofi* from his 
body and washing himself and his garments, 
after having been in the camp seven days. The 
three-tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour 
amounted to something over ten pints and a 
half. The term log as a measure occurs only in 
this chapter in the Old Testament. The log " is 
said to have been the twelfth part of a hin, and 
was computed by the rabbis to be the size of six 
eggs, about five-sixths of a pint." The three 



Ch. XIV.] 



LEVITICUS 



63 



11 And the priest that maketh him clean shall 
present the man that is tube made clean, and those 
things, before the Lord, at the door of the taber- 
nacle of the congregation : 

12 And the priest shall take one he lamb, and 
offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, 
and wave them/or a wave offering before the Lord : 

13 And he shall slay the lamb in the place where 
he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, 
in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the 
priest's, so is the trespass offering : it is most holy : 

14 And the priest shall take some of the blood of 
the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon 
the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, 
and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon 
the great toe of his right foot : 

15 And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, 
and pour it into the palm of his own left hand : 

16 And the priest shall dip his right finger in the 
oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the 
oil with his finger seven times before the Lord : 

17 And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand 
shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of 
him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of 
his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right 
foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering : 

18 A.nd the remnant of the oil that is in the 
priest's hand he shall pour upon the head of him 
that is to be cleansed : and the priest shall make 
an atonement for him before the Lord. 

19 And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and 
make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed 
from his uncleanness ; and afterward he shall kill 
the burnt offering : 

20 And the priest shall offer the burnt offering 
and the meat offering upon the altar : and the 
priest shall make an atonement for him, and he 
shall be clean. 

21 And if he be poor, and cannot get so much ; 
then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering 
to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and 
one tenth deal of fine flour mingled with oil for a 
meat offering, and a log of oil ; 

22 And two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, 
such as he is able to get ; and the one shall be a sin 
offering, and the other a burnt offering. 

23 And he shall bring them on the eighth day for 
his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the 
tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord. 

24 And the priest shall" take the lamb of the tres- 
pass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall 
wave them /or a wave offering before the Lord : 

25 And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass 
offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood 
of the trespass offering, and put it upon the tip of 
the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and 
upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the 
great toe of his right foot : 



11 oil. And the priest that cleanseth him shall set 
the man that Is to be cleansed, and those things, 
before the Lord, at the door of the tent of meet- 

12 ing : and the priest shall take one of the he- 
lambs, and offer him for a guilt offering, and the 
log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering 

13 before the Lord : and he shall kill the he-lamb 
in the place where they kill the sin offering and 
the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary : 
for as the sin offering is the priest's, so is the 

14 guilt offering : it is most holy : and the priest 
shall take of the blood of the guilt offering, and 
the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right 
ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the 
thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe 

15 of his right foot : and the priest shall take of the 
log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own 

16 left hand : and the priest shall dip his right 
finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall 
sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times 

17 before the Lord : and of the rest of the oil that 
is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip 
of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, 
and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon 
the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of 

18 the guilt offering : and the rest of the oil that is 
in the priest's hand he shall put upon the head 
of him that is to be cleansed : and the priest 
shall make atonement fur him before the Lord. 

19 And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and 
make atonement for him that is to be cleansed 
because of his uncleanness ; and afterward he 

20 shall kill the burnt offering: and the priest 
shall offer the burnt offering and the meal offer- 
ing upon the altar : and the priest shall make 
atonement for him, and he shall be clean. 

21 And if he be poor, and cannot get so much, 
then he shall take one he-lamb for a guilt offer- 
ing to be waved, to make atonement for him, and 
one tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled 
with oil for a meal offering, and a log of oil ; 

22 and two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such 
as he is able to get ; and the one shall be a sin 

23 offering, and the other a burnt offeri ng. And on 
the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleans- 
ing unto the priest, unto the door of the tent of 

24 meeting, before the Lord. And the priest shall 
take the lamb of the guilt offering, and the log 
of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave 

25 offering before the Lord : and he shall kill the 
lamb of the guilt offering, and the priest shall 
take of the blood of the guilt offering, and put 
it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to 
be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right 
hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot : 



victims provided (ver. lo) were for a guilt offer- 
ing, a sin offering, and a burnt offering. That 
a guilt offering should be waved (ver. 12) in token 
of consecration (see on 7:28-34) is explained in 
ver. 13 by the fact that it was sacred to the 
priest's use. The guilt offering was required 
when the rights of others, whether of Jehovah 
or of a fellow-man, had been violated, and was 
usually accompanied by restitution (see 5 : 14-16 
and note). It is somewhat difficult to see exactly 
how a guilt offering could be required in this 
case. The leper could hardly be held responsi- 
ble for the services and offerings withheld from 
a sanctuary to which he was incapable of hold- 
ing any relation. For a similar protracted ex- 
clusion from the temple services in the case of 



the one unclean on account of secretions no 
guilt offering is prescribed. From the fact that 
the leper on his recovery had to be restored to 
the sanctuary in a manner similar to the con- 
secration of a priest, it seems likely that his 
affliction, as a direct mai-k of God's anger, was 
felt somehow to be a matter requiring to be 
dealt with throughout on a higher or more 
saci'ed level than ordinary uncleanness. The 
leper was the direct object of Jehovali's atten- 
tion, and so his case fell specifically wuthin the 
sphere of the sanctuary. His sacred character 
was entirely destroyed by the divine blow, so 
that a satisfaction must be made to Jehovah by a 
guilt offering, as if for violation or damage to 
the sanctuary. The Nazarite was also directly 



64 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XIV. 



26 And the priest shall pour of the oil into the 
palm of his own left hand : 

27 And the priest shall sprinkle with his right 
finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven 
times before the Lord : 

28 And the priest shall put of the oil that is in 
his hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that 
is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right 
hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon 
the place of the blood of the trespass offering : 

29 And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's 
hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to 
be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before 
the Lord. 

30 And he shall offer the one of the turtledoves, 
or of the young pigeons, such as he can get ; 

31 Even such as he is able to get, the one /or a sin 
offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with 
the meat offering : and the priest shall make an 
atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the 
Lord. 

32 This is the law of him in whom is the plague of 
leprosy, whose hand is- not able to get that which 
pertaineth to his cleansing. 

33 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 
Aaron, saying, 

34 When ye be come into the land of Canaan, 
which I give to you for a possession, and I put the 
plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your 
possession ; 

35 And he that owneth the house shall come and 
tell the priest, saying. It seemeth to me there is as it 
were a plague in the house : 

36 Then the priest shall command that they 
empty the house, before the priest go into it to see 
the plague, that all that is in the house be not made 
unclean : and afterward the priest shall go in to 
see the house : 

37 And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, 
if the plague be in the walls of the house with hol- 
low strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are 
lower than the wall ; 

38 Then the priest shall go out of the house to the 
door of the house, and shut up the house seven 
days: 

39 And the priest shall come again the seventh 
day, and shall look : and, behold, if the plague be 
spread in the walls of the house ; 



26 and the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm 

27 of his own left hand : and the priest shall sprin- 
kle with his right finger some of the oil that is 
in his left hand seven times before the Lord : 

28 and the priest shall put of the oil that is in his 
hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that 
is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his 
right hand, and upon the great toe of his right 
foot, upon the place of the blood of the guilt 

29 offering: and the rest of the oil that is in the 
priest's hand he shall put upon the head of him 
that is to be cleansed, to make atonement for 

30 him before the Lord. And he shall offer one of 
the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as 

31 he is able to get ; even such as he is able to get, 
the one for a sin offering, and the other for a 
burnt offering, with the meal offering : and the 
priest shall make atonement for him that is to 

32 be cleansed before the Lord. This is the law of 
him in whom is the plague of leprosy, who is not 
able to get that ichich pertaineth to his cleansing. 

33 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 

34 Aaron, saying, When ye be come into the land 
of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, 
and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the 

35 land of your possession ; then he that owneth 
the house shall come and tell the priest, saying. 
There seemeth to me to be as it were a plague in 

36 the house : and the priest shall command that 
they empty the house, before the priest go in to 
see the plague, that all that is in the house be 
not made unclean : and afterward the priest 

37 shall go in to see the house : and he shall look 
on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in 
the walls of the house with hollow strakes, green- 
ish or reddish, and the appearance thereof be 

38 lower than the wall ; then the priest shall go out 
of the house to the door of the house, and shut 

39 up the house seven days: and the priest shall 
come again the seventh day, and shall look : 
and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls 



under Jehovah's attention, through his special 
consecration, and his character and shortcom- 
ings were in a similar way estimated from the 
sanctuary level. We have already seen that 
the common level of life, which was for ordinary 
persons entirely innocent, was for him or for the 
intending priest sinful and needed a sin offering. 
A Nazarite who had been defiled by the dead 
•was, like the restored leper, required to present 

a guilt offering (see Num. 6 : 11, 12). 

This ceremony, particularly in the application 
of the blood and the oil to the ear, the thumb, 
and the toe, resembled the disposal of the blood 
of the ram of consecration in the case of Aaron 
and his sons on their induction into office (see 8 : 
23, 24) and may possibly point to the restored 
.leper's reinstatement as a member of the priestly 
nation. 

In the case of the person who was too poor to 
afford these sacrifices only the he-lamb for the 
guilt offering was required, while the sin and 
burnt offerings might be of turtle-doves or young 
pigeons. The meal offering of fine flour was 



only one-third the usual quant'tyfor such cases, 
though the quantity of oil remained unchanged. 
33-53. Leprosy in a house. This part is ad- 
dressed to both Moses and Aaron, It is dis- 
tinguished from the rest of the section on leprosy 
in that it is wholly prospective, i, e., adapted to 
the time when the children of Israel should have 
settled dwellings in the Promised Land, The sub- 
ject-matter of this section would come in more 
naturally at the close of the last chapter. "What 
the plague of leprosy in a house was is not known, 
and any assertion with regard to it is pure conjec- 
ture. It was evidently not anything which could 
infect persons with leprosy, since those who went 
into the house (ver. 46) or ate or slept in it (ver. 47) 
simply contracted an ordinary ceremonial un- 
cleanness which passed away that night on their 
washing themselves or their clothes. The fur- 
niture, moreover, was not rendered unclean by 
the house leprosy unless it remained in the house 
after the priest had inspected it (ver. 36). It was 
perhaps some form of decay, or some parasitic 
growth that was familiarly known. 



Ch. XV.] 



LEVITICUS 



65 



40 Then the priest shall command that they take 
away the stones in which the plague is, and they 
shall cast them into an unclean place without the 
city: 

41 And he shall cause the house to be scraped 
within round about, and they shall pour out the 
dust that they scrape off without the city into an 
unclean place : 

42 And they shall take other stones, and put them 
in the place of those stones ; and he shall take other 
morter, and shall plaister the house. 

43 And if the plague come again, and break out 
in the house, after that he hath taken away the 
stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and 
after it is plaistered ; 

44 Then the priest shall come and look, and, be- 
hold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a 
fretting leprosy in the house : it is unclean, 

45 And he shall break down the house, the stones 
of it, and the timber thereof, and al) the morter of 
the house ; and he shall carry them forth out of the 
city into an unclean place. 

46 Moreover he that goeth into the house all the 
while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the 
even. 

47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his 
clothes ; and he that eateth in the house shall wash 
his clothes. 

48 And if the priest shall come in, and loo^^lpon 
it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the 
house, after the house was plaistered : then the 
priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the 
plague is healed. 

49 And he shall take to cleanse the house two 
birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop : 

50 And he shall kill the one of the birds in an 
earthen vessel over running water : 

51 And he shall take the cedar wood, and the 
hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and 
dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the 
running water, and sprinkle the house seven times : 

52 And he shall cleanse the house with the blood 
of the bird, and with the running water, and with 
the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with 
the hyssop, and with the scarlet : 

53 But he shall let go the living bird out of the 
city into the open fields, and make an atonement 
for the house : and it shall be clean. 

54 This is the law for all manner of plague of 
leprosy, and scall, 

65 And for the leprosy of a garment, and of a 
house, 

56 And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a 
bright spot : 

57 To teach when it is unclean, and when it is 
clean : this is the law of leprosy. 



40 of the house ; then the priest shall command 
that they take out the stones in which the plague 
is, and cast them into an unclean place without 

41 the city : and he shall cause the house to be 
scraped within round about, and they shall pour 
out the mortar that they scrape off without the 

42 city into an unclean place : and they shall take 
other stones, and put them in the place of those 
stones ; and he shall take other mortar, and shall 

43 plaister the house. And if the plague come 
again, and break out in the house, after that he 
hath taken out the stones, and after he hath 

44 scraped the house, and after it is plaistered ; then 
the priest shall come in and look, and, behold, 
if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fret- 

45 ting leprosy in the house : it is unclean. And 
he shall break down the house, the stones of it, 
and the timber thereof , and all the mortar of the 
house ; and he shall carry them forth out of the 

46 city into an unclean place. Moreover he that 
goeth into the house all the while that it is shut 

47 up shall be unclean until the even. And he 
that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes ; 
and hd that eateth in the house shall wash his 

48 clothes. And if the priest shall come in, and 
look, and, behold, the plague hath not spread 
in the house, after the house was plaistered ; 
then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, 

49 because the plague is healed. And he shall take 
to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, 

50 and scarlet, and hyssop : and he shall kill one 
of the birds in an earthen vessel over running 

51 water: and he shall take the cedar wood, and 
the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, 
and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and 
in the running water, and sprinkle the house 

52 seven times : and he shall cleanse the house with 
the blood of the bird, and with the running 
water, and with the living bird, and with the 
cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the 

53 scarlet : but he shall let go the living bird out of 
the city into the open field : so shall he make 
atonement for the house : and it shall be clean. 

54 This is the law for all manner of plague of 

55 leprosy, and for a scall ; and for the leprosy of a 

56 garment, and for a house ; and for a rising, and 

57 for a scab, and for a bright spot : to teach when 
it is unclean, and when it is clean : this is the 
law of leprosy. 



CHAPTER XV. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, 

saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, When any man hath a running issue out of 
his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean. 

3 And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue : 
whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be 
stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, 

2 saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and 
say unto them. When any man hath an issue out 
of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean. 

3 And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue : 
whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh 
be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness. 



The steps taken to cleanse the house after the 
disease had yielded to scraping and re-plaster- 
ing were exactly those taken with the leper 
while still outside the camp. This cleansing is 
called (ver. 49, 52) freeing from sin (Heb.), and in 
ver. 53 the priest is said to make atonement for 
the house, as if in some symbolic way it were 
guilty of a moral offense. 

54-57. Subscription to the whole. The main 
intent of this law was to teach the priest how to 



read the first obscure symptoms which might ac- 
company leprosy — when these indicated un- 
cleanness and when not ; literally, in the day of 
uncleanness and in the day of cleanness. 



£ 



Chap. 15. Uncleanness from secre- 
tions. 1-18. Uncleanness in the male. The 
running issue referred to in ver. 1-15 is the re- 
sult of a diseased condition, and therefore the 
steps to be taken when the person is restored 



66 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XV. 



4 Every bed, whereon he lieth that hath the issue, 
is unclean : and every thing, whereon he sitteth, 
shall be unclean. 

5 And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his 
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean 
until the even. 

6 And he that sitteth on any thing whereon he 
sat that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and 
bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the 
even. 

7 And he that toucheth the flesh of him that hath 
the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself 
in water, and be unclean until the even. 

8 And if he that hath the issue spit upon him 
that is clean ; then he shall wash his clothes, and 
bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the 
even. 

9 And what saddle soever he rideth upon that 
hath the issue shall be unclean. 

10 And whosoever toucheth any thing that was 
under him shall be unclean until the even : and he 
that beareth any of those things shall wash his 
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean 
until the even. 

11 And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the 
issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in water, he 
shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, 
and be unclean until the even. 

12 And the vessel of earth, that he toucheth 
which hath the issue, shall be broken : and every 
vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water. 

13 And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of 
his issue ; then he shall number to himself seven 
days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and 
bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean. 

14 And on the eighth day he shall take to him 
two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come 
before the Lord unto the door of the tabernacle of 
the congregation, and give them unto the priest : 

15 And the priest shall offer them, the one/or a 
sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering ; and 
the priest shall make an atonement for him before 
the Lord for his issue. 

16 And if any man's seed of copulation go out 
from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, 
and be unclean until the even. 

17 And every garment, and every skin, whereon 
is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with 
water, and be unclean until the even. 

18 The woman also with whom man shall \\ewith 
seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves 
in water, and be unclean until the even. 

19 And if a woman have an issue, and her issue 
in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven 
days : and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean 
until the even. 

20 And every thing that she lieth upon in her 
separation shall be unclean : every thing also that 
she sitteth upon shall be unclean. 

21 And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash 
his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be un- 
clean until the even. 

22 And whosoever toucheth any thing that she 
sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself 
in water, and be unclean until the even. 



4 Every bed whereon he that hath the issue lieth 
shall be unclean : and every thing whereon he 

5 sitteth shall be unclean. And whosoever touch- 
eth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe 
himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 

6 And he that sit:;eth on any thing whereon he 
that hath the issue sat shall wash his clothes, 
and bathe himself in water, and be unclean 

7 until the even. And he that toucheth the flesh 
of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, 
and bathe himself in water, and be unclean 

8 until the even. Andif he that hath the issue spit 
upon him that is clean ; then he shall wash his 
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be un- 

9 clean until the even. And what saddle soever he 
that hath the issue rideth upon shall be unclean. 

10 And whosoever toucheth any thing that was 
under him shall be unclean until the even : and 
he that beareth those things shall wash his 
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be un- 

11 clean until the even. And whomsoever he that 
hath the issue toucheth, without having rinsed 
his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, 
and bathe himself in water, and be unclean 

12 until the even. And the earthen vessel, which 
he that hath the issue toucheth, shall be broken ; 
and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in 

13 water. And when he that hath an issue is 
cleansed of his issue, then he shall number to 
himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash 
his clothes ; and he shall bathe his flesh in run- 

14 ning water, and shall be clean. And on the 
eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves, 
or two j^oung pigeons, and come before the Lord 
unto the door of the tent of meeting, and give 

15 them unto the priest : and the priest shall offer 
them, the one for a sin offering, and the other 
for a burnt offering ; and the priest shall make 
atonement for him before the Lord for his issue. 

16 And if any man's seed of copulation go out 
from him, then he shall bathe all his flesh in 

17 water, and be unclean until the even. And 
every garment, and every skin, whereon is the 
seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, 

18 and be unclean until the even. The woman also 
with whom a man shall lie with seed of copula- 
tion, they shall both bathe themselves in water, 
and be unclean until the even. 

19 And if a woman have an issue, and her issue 
in her flesh be blood, she shall be in her im- 
purity seven days : and whosoever toucheth her 

20 shall be unclean until the even. And every 
thing that she lieth upon in her impurity shall 
be unclean : every thing also that she sitteth 

21 upon shall be unclean. And whosoever touch- 
eth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe 
himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 

22 And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sit- 
teth upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe him- 
self in water, and be unclean until the even. 



are prescribed (ver. 13-15). "While the sacrifice 
required is not very burdensome, the extreme 
scrupulosity of the lawgiver with regard to the 
'pollution of persons, garments, vessels, and fur- 
niture communicated by the touch, had the 
effect of rendering the people extremely sensi- 
tive to uncleanness of this kind. Hating the 
garment spotted by the flesh would be one of the 
signs of personal religion (Jude 23). Most of the 
ancient religions made a similar recognition of 
uncleanness and of the need of purification. 
Ver. 16-18 refer to natural, healthful secretions. 



These require no sacrifice, but entail the neces- 
sity of washing the garments and the person, 
and the technical condition of uncleanness for 
the remainder of the day. 

19-30, Uncleanness in the female. In the 
case of the woman the natural uncleanness is 
mentioned first (ver. 19-24), and no sacrifice is pre- 
scribed. The act mentioned in ver. 24 must 
mean a case of the accidental concurrence of the 
menstrual period with the act of cohabitation, 
since voluntary intercourse during that period 
was a heavy crime (see is : i9; 20 : is). Tor the 



Ch. XVI.] 



LEVITICUS 



67 



23 And if it be on her hed, or on any thing whereon 
shesitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean 
until the even. 

24 And if any man lie with her at all, and her 
flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven 
days ; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be 
unclean. 

25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood 
many days out of the time of her separation, or if 
it run beyond the time of her separation ; all the 
days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the 
days of her separation : she shall be unclean. 

26 Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of 
her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her sepa- 
ration : and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be 
unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation. 

27 And whosoever toucheth those things shall be 
unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe him- 
self in water, and be unclean until the even. 

28 But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she 
shall number to herself seven days, and after that 
she shall be clean. 

29 And on the eighth day she shall take unto her 
two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them 
unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the 
congregation. 

30 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin 
offering, and the other /or a burnt offering ; and the 
priest shall make an atonement for her before the 
Lord for the issue of her uncleanness. 

31 Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel 
from their uncleanness ; that they die not in their 
uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that 
is among them. 

32 This is the law of him that hath an issue, and 
of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled 
therewith ; 

33 And of her that is sick of her flowers, and of 
him that hath an issue, of the man, and of the 
woman, and of him that lieth with her that is 
unclean. 



23 And if it be on the bed, or on any thing whereon 
she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be un- 

24 clean until the even. And if any man lie with 
her, and her impurity be upon him, he shall be 
unclean seven days ; and every bed whereon he 
lieth shall be unclean. 

25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood 
many days not in the time of her impurity, or if 
she have an issue beyond the time of her impu- 
rity ; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness 

she shall be as in the days of her impurity : she 

26 is unclean. Every bed whereon she lieth all the 
days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of 
her impurity : and every thing whereon she sit- 
teth shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her 

27 impurity. And whosoever toucheth those things 
shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, 
and bathe himself in water, and be unclean 

28 until the even. But if she be cleansed of her 
issue, then she shall number to herself seven 

29 days, and after that she shall be clean. And on 
the eighth day she shall take unto her two tur- 
tledoves, or two young pigeons, and bring them 
unto the priest, to the door of the tent of meet- 

30 ing. And the priest shall offer the one for a sin 
offering, and the other for a burnt offering ; and 
the priest shall make atonement for her before 
the Lord for the issue of her uncleanness. 

31 Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel 
from their uncleanness ; that they die not in 
their uncleanness, when they defile my taber- 
nacle that is in the midst of them. 

32 This is the law of him that hath an issue, and 
of him whose seed of copulation goeth from him, 

33 so that he is unclean thereby ; and of her that is 
sick with her impurity, and of him that hath an 
issue, of the man, and of the woman, and of him 
that lieth with her that is unclean. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses after the death 
of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before 
the Lord, and died ; 

2 And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aar- 
on thy brother, that he come not at all times into 
the holy p^ace within the vail before the mercy seat, 
which is upon the ark; that he die not: fori will 
appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, after the 
death of the two sons of Aaron, when thev drew 

2 near before the Lord, and died ; and the Lord 
said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, 
that he come not at all times into the holy place 
within the veil, before the mercy-seat which is 
upon the ark ; that he die not : for I will appear 



unnatural menstruation resulting from a dis- 
eased condition a quarantine and sacrifice was 
required on its cessation like that required of 
the man who had recovered from a morbid issue 

(cf. ver. 13-15). 

31-39. Subscription. The main object of 
this law was evidently to cultivate the habit of 
recognizing and abhorring uncleanness. It is 
noteworthy how this separation from unclean- 
ness is connected with religious feeling by mak- 
ing the highest degree of fault and danger to con- 
sist in communicating a taint to the habitation 
of God (ver. 31) that was among the people. Un- 
cleanness neglected is in danger of becoming as 
it were an injury to the purity of the very tem- 
ple of God. Compare the features in the cleans- 
ing of the leper (i* : 12-u) which seem to indicate 
that leprosy as the highest type of all impurity 
was regarded as a violation of the sanctuary. 
There seems to be latent here the feeling of the 



identity of the temple of God with the human 
body — a feeling which was so developed and 
vivid in Christ that he spoke of the temple and 
of his body in one inclusive assertion (John 2 : 19). 
Paul too makes this identity the basis of one of 
his most expressive metaphors (1 Cor. 6 : 19). 



Chap. 16. The Day of Atonement. 

Ij 3. The historical occasion. Historically this 
chapter is connected with the events narrated in 
chap. 10, and the interposition of chap. 11-15, so 
entirely unrelated in subject to this apparently 
continuous section, may possibly indicate a re- 
daction by which this chapter has been removed 
from its original context. In a book so scantily 
historical in its form as Leviticus, however, this 
supposition is by no means necessary. The 
reference to the death of Nadab and Abihu 
simply supplies the historical occasion for tlie 
legislation, rather than makes any attempt to 



68 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XVI. 



3 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place : 
with a young bullock for a sin ofiering, and a ram 
for a burnt offering. 

4 He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he 
shall have the linen breeches upon his flesli, and 
shall be girded with a linen girdle, and witii the 
linen mitre shall he be attired : tliese are holy gar- 
ments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, 
and so put them on. 

5 And he shall take of the congregation of the 
children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin 
offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. 

6 And Aaron shall oft'er his bullock of the sin 
offering, Avliich is for himself, and make an atone- 
ment for himself, and for his house. 

7 And he shall take the two goats, and present 
them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle 
of the congregation. 

8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats ; 
one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scape- 
goat. 

9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the 
Lord's lot fell, and offer him /or a sin offering. 

10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the 
scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, 
to make an atonement with him, aiid to let him go 
for a scapegoat into the wilderness. 

11 And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin 
oft'ering, which is for himself, and shall make an 
atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall 
kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for 
himself : 

12 And he shall take a censer full of burning 
coals oi tire from off the altar before the Lord, and 
his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and 
bring it within the vail : 

13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire be- 
fore the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may 
cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, 
that he die not : 

14 And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, 
and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat 
eastward ; and before the mercy seat shall he 
sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. 



3 in the cloud upon the mercy-seat. Herewith 
shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a 
young bullock for a sin ottering, and a ram for 

4 a burnt ottering. He shall put on the holy linen 
coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon 
his tiesh, and shall be girded with the linen gir- 
dle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired : 
they are the holy garments ; and he shall bathe 

5 his flesh iu water, and put them on. And he 
shall take of the congregation of the children of 
Israel two he-goats for a sin offering, and one 

6 ram for a burnt oft'ering. And Aaron shall pre- 
sent the bullock of the sin offering, which is for 
himself, and make atonement for himself, and 

7 for his house. And he shall take the two goats, 
and set them before the Lord at the door of the 

8 tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots upon 
the two goats ; one lot for the Lord, and the 

9 other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present 
the goat upon which the lot fell for the Lord, 

10 and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, 
on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set 
alive before the Lord, to make atonement for 
him, to send him away for Azazel into the Wil- 
li derness. And Aaron shall present the bullock 
of the sin offering, which is for himself, and 
shall make atonement for himself, and for his 
house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin oft'er- 

12 ing which is for himself: and he shall take a 
censer full of coals of fire from off" the altar be- 
fore the Lord, and his hands full of sweet in- 
cense beaten small, and bring it within the veil : 

13 and he shall put the incense upon the ttre before 
the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may 
cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, 

14 that he die not: and he shall take of the blood 
of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger 
upon the mercy-seat on the east ; and before the 
mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with 



continue a narrative. It was natural that a visita- 
tion so awful should intensify the meditations of 
the lawgiver on the sacredness of the sanctuary, 
and so render him receptive to a divine revela- 
tion on the subject. 

The Day of Atonement was the climax of the 
Jewish system of offerings for sin , and was called 
by the rabbins Yoma, or the Bay, as if it were 
the day ^ar excellence of the sacred year. It is 
probably the same as the fast mentioned in 
Acts 27 : 9. 

3-13. The reverent preparations. Having 
provided himself with a young bullock for a sin 
offering and a ram for a burnt offering, Aaron 
was to substitute for his ordinary glorious high- 
priestly garments (Exod. 28) which had been sanc- 
tified with sprinkled blood and oil (s : 7-9, 
iio) a suit of pure white linen differing from 
the dress of the ordinary priests in having a 
high priest's turban of linen instead of the head- 
tire of the common priests and a white linen 
girdle instead of the variegated one such as they 
wore. Before assuming these garments and 
after putting them off (ver. 24) Aaron was to 
bathe his whole person in water. The white 
garments perhaps signified the purity with 



which he should approach the awful presence of 
God, and their absence of adornment may have 
been also a token of humiliation. For the con- 
gregation Aaron was to take two shaggy he-goats 
— the rabbins say, exactly alike — which were to 
serve in a wholly unique manner as one sin offer- 
ing. With these three animals he was to appear 
at the door of the tent of meeting, and having 
first cast lots on the two goats so as to determine 
which one was to be slain that his blood might 
be used in the holy place, Aaron was to kill the 
bullock for his ow^n sin offering, preparing him- 
self for his solemn function of entering the holy 
place by making atonement in behalf of himself 
and of his house. A still further preparation 
for the reverent approach to the awful presence 
of Jehovah was to make a cloud of incense, by 
means of a censer brought wdthin the veil, so 
that the mercy seat might be hidden. 

14-19. The sprinkling of blood. Silently 
and alone, no one being permitted to be in the 
tent of meeting, Aaron was to enter beyond the 
veil with the blood of the bullock slain for his 
own sin offering, which he was to sprinkle upon 
the mercy seat on the east side, i. e., the side 
next to the veil, and also seven times on the 



Ch. XVI.] 



LEVITICUS 



69 



15 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, 
that is for the people, and bring his blood within 
the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the 
blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the 
mercy seat, and before the mercy seat : 

16 And he shall make an atonement for the holy 
place, because of the uucleanness of the children of 
Israel, and because of their transgressions in all 
their sins : and so shall he do for the tabernacle of 
the congregation, that remaineth among them in 
the midst of their uncleanness. 

17 And there shall be no man in the tabernacle 
of the congregation when he goeth in to make an 
atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and 
have made an atonement for himself, and for his 
household, and for all the congregation of Israel. 

18 And he shall go out unto the altar that is be- 
fore the Lord, and make an atonement for it ; and 
shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the 
blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the 
altar round about. 

19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it 
with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and 
hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of 
Israel. 

20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling 
the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congrega- 
tion, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: 

21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the 
head of the live goat, and confess over him all the 
iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their 
transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon 
the head of the goat, and shall send him away by 
the hand of a fit man into the wilderness : 

22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their in- 
iquities unto a land not inhabited : and he shall let 
go the goat in the wilderness. 



15 his finger seven times. Then shall he kill the 
goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, 
and bring his blood within the veil, and do with 
his blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, 
and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat, and before 

16 the mercy-seat : and he shall make atonement 
for the holy place, because of the uncleanness 
of tlie children of Israel, and because of tiieir 
transgressions, even all their sins : and so shall 
he do for the tent of meeting, that dwelleth with 

17 tliem in the midst of their uncleanness. And 
there shall be no man in the tent of meeting 
when he goeth in to make atonement in the 
holy place, until he come out, and have made 
atonement for himself, and for his household, 

18 and for all the assembly of Israel. And he shall 
go out unto the altar that is before the Lord, and 
make atonement for it ; and shall take of the 
blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the 
goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar 

19 round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood 
upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse 
it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the 

20 children of Israel. And when he hath made an 
end of atoning for the holy place, and the tent 
of meeting, and the altar, he shall present the 

21 live goat : and Aaron shall lay both his hands 
upon the head of the live goat, and confess over 
him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, 
and all their transgressions, even all their sins ; 
and he shall put them upon the head of the 
goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a 
man that is in readiness into the wilderness : 

22 and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniq- 
uities unto a solitary land : and he shall let go 



ground before the mercy seat. The Hebrew in 
ver. 14 leaves it somewhat doubtful whether 
there was any sprinkling except the seven-fold 
sprinkling befor^e the mercy seat, and Jewish 
authority favors the opinion that this was the 
only sprinkling. But in ver. 15, which describes 
the precisely similar ceremony with the blood of 
the goat, the expression unambiguously speci- 
fies a single sprinkling upon and a seven-fold 
one hefore the mercy seat. Then having re- 
turned and slain the goat designated by lot as 
the people's sin ofiering to Jehovah, he was to 
enter within the veil once more and sprinkle its 
blood as he had done that of the bullock. This 
was to make atonement for the holy place be- 
cause of the taint which it had acquired on ac- 
count of the sins and uncleannesses of the peo- 
ple. In like manner the tent of meeting was to 
be purified, and this purification especially in- 
cluded the altar of incense, as we learn from 
Exod. 30 : 10. Finally the great brazen altar 
"before the Lord," i. e., in the court (cf. Exod. 
29 : 11) was to be purified by the application of 
the mingled blood to its horns round about, and 
the seven-fold sprinkling. 

20-22. The sending away of the live goat. 
It was in connection with this part of the cere- 
monial that the most noticeable feature of the 
ritual of atonement occurred. The considera- 
tion of ver, 8 and 10 comes in here. In direct 



antithesis to the lot which is cast " for the Lord " 
(ver. 8) is the lot " for the scapegoat," or rather, 
"for Azazel" (E. V.). Ver. 10 reads: "But 
the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall 
be set alive before Jehovah, to make atonement 
upon him, to send him away to Azazel into the 
wilderness." The word ^J.HTj7., 'Azazel, occurs 
only in this chapter — here and in ver. 26. By 
the best modern scholars it is considered most 
probable that the word is derived from a root in 
use in Arabic but not in Hebrew, meaning to 
remove or separate, and that it designates a per- 
sonal being placed in opposition to Jehovah, 
perhaps some evil spirit or demon believed to be 
in banishment and to inhabit desert places. 
The notion of such beings infesting the desert 
was not unfamilar to Jewish thought (see isa. i3 : 

21 ; 34 : 14 ; Matt. 12 : 43 ; Luke 8 : 27 ; Rev. 18 : 2). "In 

the earliest parts of the book of Enoch (proba- 
bly about 180 B. c), Azazel appears as the 
leader of the angels who formed unions with the 
daughters of men, and whose off"spring, the 
giants, filled the earth with unrighteousness and 

blood (Knoch 6 : 1, 2 ; 7:1-5; 9:6, 8-11 ; see Gen. 6 : 1-6), 

and he is represented (lo : 4, 5) as fast bound, as 
a punishment for his sins, under rough and 
jagged rocks in the wilderness " (Driver). But 
what notion lay at the root of the practice of 
sending a goat to him is not known. As the 
two goats constituted complementary elements 



70 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XVI. 



23 And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of 
the congregation, and shall put off the linen gar- 
ments, which he put on when he went into the 
holy place, and shall leave them there : 

24 And he shall wash his flesh with water in the 
holy place, and put on his garments, and come 
forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt 
offering of the people, and make an atonement for 
himself, and for the people. 

25 And the fat of the sin offering shall he bum 
upon the altar. 

26 And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat 
shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, 
and afterward come into the camp. 

27 And the bullock for the sin offering, and the 
goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought 
in to make atonement in the holy place, shall ojie 
carry forth without the camp ; and they shall burn 
in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their 
dung. 

28 And he that burneth them shall wash his 
clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward 
he shall come into the camp. 

29 And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: 
that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the 
month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work 
at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a 
stranger that sojourneth among you : 

30 For on that day shall the priest make an atone- 
ment for you, t-o cleanse you, that ye may be clean 
from all your sins before the Lord. 



23 the goat in the wilderness. And Aaron shall 
come into the tent of meeting, and shall put off 
the linen garments, which he put on when he 
went into the holy place, and shall leave them 

24 there : and he shall bathe his flesh in water in 
the holy place, and put on his garments, and 
come forth, and offer his burnt offering and the 
burnt offering of the people, and make atone- 

25 ment for himself and for the people. And the 
fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the 

26 altar. And he that letteth go the goat for Azazel 
shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in 
water, and afterward he shall come into the 

27 camp. And the bullock of the sin offering, and 
the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was 
brought in to make atonement in the holv place, 
shall be carried forth without the camp ; and 
they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their 

28 flesh, and their dung. And he that burneth 
them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh 
in water, and afterward he shall come into the 
canip. 

29 And it shall be a statute for ever unto yoix : in 
the seventh month, on the tenth day of the 
month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do 
no manner of work, the homeborn, or the stran- 

30 ger that sojourneth among you : for on this day 
shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse 
you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before 



in one sin offering, and as therefore the goat 
sent away could be no idolatrous propitiation to 
an evil spirit, it seems most probable that the 
sending of the confessed and atoned-for sins to 
Azazel was simply their dismissal, in an indefi- 
nite way, as befits all consignment to forgetful- 
ness, to the vaguely conceived place where they 
belonged. For the common worshiper, then, 
the broad impression of this Day of Atonement 
was that the sins of the people were not only 
atoned for by the death of a victim, but sepa- 
rated from them and banished to forgetfulness 
through the same ofiering in another phase. 
While in the typical sacrifice this could be ef- 
fected only by means of two victims, in the eter- 
nal reality to which it pointed the one Saviour 
who died and rose again becomes at once the aton- 
ing Sacrifice and the risen Sanctifier by whom our 
sin is removed (Heb. 9 : 24-28). Some such idea 
as this of sending the people's sins away into the 
unclean wilderness is found in the visions of 
Zechariah, chap. 5, where the nation's sin 
which God has forgiven is carried into the 
unclean land of Babylon. 

23-28. Remaining ceremonies. Having 
bathed his flesh and reassumed his high-priestly 
garments, Aaron was to ofier the burnt offering 
for himself and for the people, and to bum the 
fat of the sin offering whose blood had been 
brought into the holy place. It will be remem- 
bered that none of this sin offering might be 
eaten (see 6 : 30). The ordinary ritual of the 
burnt and sin offering was used. The one who 
conducted away the goat to Azazel and also the 



one who burned the flesh of the sin offering 
without the camp were to bathe their flesh and 
wash their clothes before returning to the camp, 
perhaps under a rule that whoever left the 
camp during a religious solemnity incurred un- 
cleanness. Certain accessory offerings in con- 
nection with the Day of Atonement are men- 
tioned in Xum. 29 : 7-11. These consisted of a 
young bullock, a ram, seven lambs, and a hairy 
he goat for a sin ofiering, with their meal and 
drink offerings. 

29-34, The institution of the Day of AtonC' 
ment. This seventh month of the sacred year 
has been called the Sabbatical month. In the 
first day was celebrated the feast of Trumpets 
(23 : 24) ; the tenth day was the Day of Atone- 
ment, and on the fifteenth the feast of Booths 
began (23 : 34). 29. The stranger means a 
foreigner who dwelt among the people and con- 
formed to their customs. Foreigners could 
share in most of the privileges of sacrifice and 
religious festivity; but in order to participate 
in the Passover they must be circumcised (see 

Exod. 12 : 48; Xum. 9 : 14). AflEllct yOUI SOUlS, 

probably by fasting. This is the only fast pre- 
scribed in the law. The succeeding generations 
of high priests in their succession were to pre- 
side over the Day of Atonement by a perpetual 
statute or ordinance of eternity. The great gen- 
eral idea of the day and its purpose was, that 
ye may be clean from all your sins be- 
fore the Lord (ver. so). 

The last sentence of ver. 34 hardly seems an 
appropriate ending for the chapter in its present 



Ch. XVI.] 



LEVITICUS 



71 



31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye 
shall afllict your souls, by a statute for ever. 

32 And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and 
whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest's 
office in his father's stead, shall make the atone- 
ment, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the 
holy garments : 

33 And he shall make an atonement for the holy 
sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the 
tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, 
and he shall make an atonement for the priests, 
and for all the people of the congregation. 

34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto 
you, to make an atonement for the children of Is- 
rael for all their sins once a year. And he did as 
the Lord commanded Moses. 



31 the Lord. It is a sabbath of solemn rest unto 
you, and ye shall afflict your souls ; it is a stat- 

32 ute forever. And the priest, who shall be an- 
ointed and who shall be consecrated to be priest 
in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, 
and shall put on the linen garments, even the 

33 holy garments : and he shall make atonement 
for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atone- 
ment for the tent of meeting and for the altar ; 
and he shall make atonement for the priests 

34 and for all the people of the assembly. And this 
shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make 
atonement for the children of Israel because of 
all their sins once in the year. And he did as 
the Lord commanded Moses. 



form. It has been suggested that it may be a 
survival from an earlier stage of the chapter 
when it contained only directions which could 
be executed immediately. The chapter, it will 
be remembered, sets out from the occasion of the 
death of Nadab and Abihu as if its object were 
simply to define when and how Aaron might 
enter the holy place (ver. 2)^ but it goes on to 
give a complete and elaborate ritual for the 
great annual cleansing of the sanctuary and the 
priests and the people ; and it is not improbable 
that additions were made to it as the usages of 
the temple grew in elaborateness. It is certain 
that if ceremonial did not grow during the time 
preceding the codification of the priestly law, it 
did afterward, as is illustrated in the Mishnic 
treatise Yoma, in which several additions in 
practice are made to the law as laid down in 
Leviticus. 

' ' For the like of the great Day of Atonement, 
we look in vain in any other people. If every 
sacrifice pointed to Christ, this most luminously 
of all. What the fifty-third of Isaiah is to his 
Messianic prophecies, that, we may truly say, is 
the sixteenth of Leviticus to the whole system 
of Mosaic types, the most consummate flower 
of the Messianic symbolism. All the sin offer- 
ings pointed to Christ, the great High Priest 
and Victim of the future ; but this . . . with a 
distinctness found in no other" (Kellogg). 

As the system of sin ofierings appears to have 
been the creation of the law, and as the Day of 
Atonement is the culmination of the expiatory 
sacrifices, it will be interesting at this point to 
observe what conception of the nature of sin 
and of its remedy was indicated and contributed 
to the world by means of this highest attainment 
of ritual expression. Perhaps we may say that 
the definite conception which this ceremonial 
treatment of sin added to the world's thought 
was that of sin as a thing — a substance which 
could be made the object of attention and 
of remedial treatment, a thing which could de- 
file, which could be abhorred, which by atone- 



ment could be covered from the divine observa- 
tion, which could be so imaged in the common 
mind that measures could be taken to send it 
away into banishment. In short, the system of 
expiation objectified sin. This is a distinct 
modification of, and for some purposes an ad- 
vance on, the first obvious idea of the nature of 
sin which common perception would form of it. 
To the obvious primary perception sin is an act 
of disobedience or transgression by which one 
incurs the displeasure of the superior Power. 
The act is thought of purely and only as related 
to an external higher Will. The obvious re- 
medial treatment of sin in this aspect of it is 
simply to desist from the act and obtain the for- 
giveness of the one aggrieved. Now this is 
called the ethical conception of sin, and it is 
sometimes thought of as the only just and com- 
plete conception — a later achievement of the 
human mind and destined to supersede that 
lower conception of sin by which it becomes as 
it were a substance, an object of expiation and 
purification. 

But as a matter of fact, is not this latter con- 
ception, this quasi physical thought of sin, a 
more developed idea, and one taking a deeper 
hold upon human nature ? Is it not a concep- 
tion distinctly necessary as complementary to 
the purely ethical idea, if the human race is to 
get such a grasp on the nature of its corruption 
as to be delivered from it ? Thinking of him- 
self as a transgressor, related simply to an ex- 
ternal will, the sinner is put upon the round of 
penitence, of resolutions of amendment, of at- 
tempts at better behavior, all of which is neces- 
sary to make a good man of him, but all of 
which is only one side of the process of renewal. 
On the other hand, thinking of himself as a de- 
filed and unclean creature, reckoning with a 
condition rather than with an act, related not 
simply to an external will transgressed but 
to his own rightful nature debased, the sinner 
is put upon the round of finding out his own 
nature and corruption — he enters on that spir- 



72 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XVII. 



itual development which issues in his purifying 
himself even as his Redeemer is pure. The first 
step in the development of this thought of puri- 
fication from the deeply ingrained defilement of 
sin is the conception of sin as a thing which de- 
files, a thing separable in thought from the 
actor, a thing that can be washed away, atoned 
away, sent away, symbolically by lustrations 
and sprinkled blood, really by the infusion of 
the purifying divine life. 

So in the priestly cultus there was the pro- 
vision made by which the congregation was 
constantly reminded of the substantial nature 
of sin. Whenever a victim was slain as a sin 
ofiering, and especially when on the great Day 
of Atonement the confessed sins of the whole 
congregation were sent away in symbol to 
Azazel, the people's moral and ceremonial cor- 
ruption was exhibited as a thing which could 
be handled and dealt with, which could be sep- 
arated from human nature and detested, a thing 
which did not vanish into nothingness on the 
person's desisting from the act but remained as 
a defiling element in the life until it was con- 
fessed and atoned for and done away. And this 
conception of sin as a substance came in con- 
nection with that other ceremonial schooling by 
which the Israelitish conscience was made ex- 
ceedingly sensitive to physical defilement; so 
that with double vividness there would be im- 
pressed on the rightly developed mind of the 
worshiper, by the public services of his church, 
the momentously practical truth that sin defiles 
the conscience so that the only salvation is by a 
purifying atonement. 

This idea of sin as a defilement was contrib- 
uted to the world as a permanent possession. 



The expiatory system of the Hebrews was a 
foreshadowing of the atonement of Christ ; but 
it was not simply a transitory type, appearing 
beforehand and then destined to be lost, en- 
gulfed, annihilated by the all-superseding glory 
of the fulfillment. It remains as a permanent 
element in the thought by which we are enabled 
to conceive of the nature of Christ's work itself. 
The life and death and resurrection of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, with all its inspiring power as a 
culmination of God's revelation of himself, is a 
mighty fact which cannot be exhausted by a 
single expression. It relates itself to sin as 
transgression, and procures for the believer for- 
giveness. It relates itself to sin as a fatal self- 
ishness, and opens out the broader life of love. 
It relates itself to sin as a death, a spiritual 
helplessness, and imparts the power of a resur- 
rection. But all these thoughts of Christ's rela- 
tion to us would be incomplete if our schooling 
through the Old Testament had not taught us to 
look deeper into our own souls and find Christ 
related to sin as a momentous and deadly defile- 
ment to which he ministers atonement and 
cleansing. It is this aspect of the death of 
Christ to which the sin offering of the Jews 
points forward. There is nothing gained for 
the cause of truth by the exercise of that in- 
genuity which seeks to find everything about 
Christ promiscuously foreshadowed in these 
types. It is enough that by this schooling in 
the conception of sin as a defilement, and this 
age-long ceremonial habit of seeking atonement, 
the lost world has been enabled to accept Christ 
as the divine atonement and cleanser from the 
uncleanness which makes us unfit for com- 
i munion with the infinite purity. 



PART SECOND. THE LAW OP HOLINESS, CHAPTERS 17 TO 26. 



The part of Leviticus included in these chap- 
ters seems to constitute a distinct section by 
itself, characterized by the predominance of 
certain expressions very rarely found in other 
parts of the priestly legislation, and provided 
with a hortatory framework in a manner unlike 
that of the other laws of Leviticus. It begins, 
indeed, and ends in a manner quite similar to 
the two great pentateuchal codes, the so-called 
" Book of the Covenant " (Exod. 20 : 22 to 23 : 33), and 
the Deuteronomic code (oeut. 12 to 28). All three 
of these groups of laws open with instructions 
regarding the place of sacrifice and end with an 
exhortation containing promises and threaten- 



ings. The principle which characterizes the 
section is the principle of holiness — partly cere- 
monial, partly moral — as a quality distinguish- 
ing Israel or demanded of Israel by Jehovah 
and regulating that people's life. While holiness 
is demanded in other parts of the Pentateuch, 
here it is insisted on with such emphasis and 
frequency as to make it the leading motive. The 
divine commands are repeatedly grounded on 
the proposition, "fori Jehovah am holy," or 
" I am Jehovah that sanctify you." The title, 
therefore, "The Law of Holiness," given it by 
Klostermann in 1877, has ever since been recog- 
nized by critics as a peculiarly happy one. 



Ch. XVII.] 



LEVITICUS 



73 



CHAPTER XVII. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto 
all the children of Israel, and say unto them, This 
is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, 
saying, 

3 What man soever there be of the house of Israel, 
that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or 
that killeth it out of the camp, 

4 And bringeth it not unto the door of the taber- 
nacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto 
the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord ; blood 
shall be imputed unto that man ; he hath shed 
blood ; and that man shall be cut off from among 
his people: 

5 To the end that the children of Israel may 
bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open 
field, even that they may bring them unto the 
Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace 
offerings unto the Lord. 

6 And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon 
the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle 
of the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet 
savour unto the Lord. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto 
all the children of Israel, and say unto them ; 
This is the thing which the Lord hath com- 

3 manded, saying. What man soever there be of 
the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or 
goat, in the camp, or that killeth it without the 

4 camp, and hath not brought it unto the door of 
the tent of meeting, to offer it as an oblation 
unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord : 
blood shall be imputed unto that man ; he hath 
shed blood ; and that man shall be cut off from 

5 among his people : to the end that the children 
of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they 
sacrifice in the open field, even that they may 
bring them unto the Lord, unto the door of the 
tent of meeting, unto the priest, and sacrifice 
them for sacrifices of peace offerings unto the 

6 Lord. And the priest shall sprinkle the blood 
upon the altar of the Lord at the door of the tent 
of meeting, and burn the fat for a sweet savour 



Some of the words and phrases almost if not 
quite peculiar to this section are so frequently 
repeated as to be characteristic. Such are the 
two forms of expression already mentioned, 
and also such expressions as " I will set my face 
against," "I will cut oflp from his people," 
"My statutes and my ordinances," "To keep 
and do," "To profane the name of Jehovah," 
" To profane a holy thing, or sanctuary," "And 
thou shalt fear thy God," " Their blood shall be 
upon them," "Bear sin, or iniquity," in various 
forms of the phrase, all of them indicating an 
imperative element of personal responsibility 
and of divine requirement. 

" The characteristic which immediately strikes 
us is that of a priestly law, satisfying, above all 
things, the requirements of the ritual. The 
Deuteronomic demand that sacrifices should be 
brought to only one sanctuary, allowing, how- 
ever, according to Deut. 12 : 15, that animals 
might be slaughtered and eaten at any place, is 
now raised higher, so as to mean that every act 
of slaughter is to be regarded as a sacrifice, and 
consequently can only be performed at the one 
legitimate sanctuary. . . Then there follow in 
confused alternation regulations concerning the 
eating of blood and carcasses, forbidden degrees 
of marriage and sins of unchastity, treatment of 
the sacrifices, the gleanings, the rights of neigh- 
bors in every conceivable relation, also the 
priests' duties, the celebration of the religious 
festivals, the Sabbatic year and the year of 
Jubilee — all from the point of view that the 
transgression of these commandments defiles the 
land and violates the divinely willed holiness of 
the people, and thus of Jahweh himself" 
(Kautzsch). Ezekiel, the priestly prophet, has 



aflinities with the priestly legislation in general, 
but his affinities with this part of the priest code 
are peculiarly striking and numerous. 

Chap. 17. On killing animals for 
FOOD. 1-7. The legislation given here is di- 
rected toward a particular end, namely, the 
promotion of the practice in Israel of bringing 
all sacrifices to the door of the tent of meeting 
as peace offerings (ver. 5). The motive seems to 
be to discourage the practice of idolatry or 
nature- worship, a motive which is particularly 
strong in the law of holiness. The general prin- 
ciple which w^as intended to be lodged in the 
conscience of the individual was that a person 
was responsible for the blood of an animal of 
the kind offered in sacrifice as much as for that 
of a person (ver. i)^ only in the case of the beast 
the imputation of murder was removed by the 
act of sacrifice. It should be remembered that 
in the East flesh-eating is not an everyday cus- 
tom. " Except at a feast, or to entertain a guest, 
or in sacrifice before a local shrine, the Bedouin 
tastes no meat but the flesh of the gazelle or 
other game." "Among the Semitic nations 
above all others the taking of the life of an 
animal, especially an animal of a kind which 
might be offered in sacrifice, has always been 
regarded as a solemn act, partaking of a some- 
what religious character." Indeed, the same 
Hebrew word means both to slay and to sacrifice. 
The ordinances of Manu do not approve of any 
flesh being eaten which has not been offered to 
a deity. Modern Moslems "appear to reckon 
all flesh as carrion unless Bismillah (i. e., 'in 
the name of God') is pronounced when the 
throat is cut, or, in the case of game, when the 
gun is fired or the leash of the dog slipped." 



74 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XVII. 



7 And they shall no more offer their sacrifices 
unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. 
This shall be a statute for ever unto them through- 
out their generations. 

8 And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever 
man there be of the house of Israel, or of the stran- 
gers which sojourn among you, that off ere th a 
burnt offering or sacrifice, 

9 And bringeth it not unto the door of the taber- 
nacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the Lord ; 
even that man shall be cut off from among his 
people. 

10 And whatsoever man there he of the house of 
Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, 
that eateth any manner of blood ; I will even set 
my face against that soul that eateth blood, and 
will cut him off from among his people. 

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood : and I 
have given it to you upon the altar to make an 
atonement for your souls : for it is the blood that 
maketh an atonement for the soul. 



7 unto the Lord. And they shall no more sacri- 
fice their sacrifices unto the he-goats, after 
whom they go a whoring. This shall be a stat- 
ute for ever unto them throughout their gen- 
erations. 

8 And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever 
man there be of the house of Israel, or of the 
strangers that sojourn among them, that offereth 

9 a burnt offering or sacrifice, and bringeth it not 
unto the door of the tent of meeting, to sacrifice 
it unto the Lord ; even that man shall be cut off 
from his people. 

10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of 
Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among 
them, that eateth any manner of blood ; I will 
set my face against that soul that eateth blood, 
and will cut him off from among his people. 

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood : and I 
have given it to you upon the altar to make 
atonement for your souls : for it is the blood 
that maketh atonement by reason of the life. 



7. And they shall no more offer, etc. 
The universally prevalent religious or supersti- 
tious feelings with which the slaughter of ani- 
mals was regarded would constitute an ever- 
haunting temptation to the people to sacrifice to 
some strange deity or demon in the absence of 
the sanctuary and the educated priest. It seems 
to have been in order to stamp out this practice 
that this restriction of slaughter to animals pre- 
sented at the sanctuary was intended. The 
devils, or rather he-goats (R. V.), were satyrs 
or unclean spirits, "field devils" (Luther), 
supposed to inhabit the desert (isa. is : 21 ; 34 : 14) j 
and these under the form of the goat were wor- 
shiped especially in Lower Egypt with the 
accompaniment of the most impure rites, such 
as are most aptly and literally described by the 
clause, after Avhom they have gone a 
whoring, with which this sentence ends. The 
idolatrous Jeroboam is said by the chronicler 
(2 chron. 11 : 15) to have made provision for their 
worship, and possibly some of the high places 
which Josiah removed (2 Kings 23 .- 8) ought to be 
called "high places of the satyrs" instead of 
" high places of the gates," a change of reading 
which involves the alteration of only one vowel- 
point in Hebrew. 

This shall be a statute forever, etc. 
The method of explaining this somewhat puz- 
zling enactment, which is apparently abrogated 
in Deut. 12 : 15, 16, 20-24, constitutes the dis- 
tinguishing mark of the critic who finds these 
laws in their present form to be a comparatively 
late compilation, on the one hand, or the critic 
who holds that the whole Pentateuch as it 
stands was written by Moses on the other. There 
seems to be a closer restriction to the sanctuary 
in this place than in the priest code outside of 
the law of holiness (see t : 22-27). It seems in- 
credible that a single author should enact in the 
wilderness a " perpetual statute," and then in ' 



the natural event of his arriving at the borders 
of his destined promised land, which he could 
not but have foreseen, should contradict himself 
without explanation a few years later. A possi- 
ble explanation of the matter, on the supposition 
that under the first temple regime the priest 
legislation was in a state of growth, would be 
that the compiler of the present book of Leviti- 
cus found in his original document a requirement 
of this nature, only compelling the bringing of 
slaughtered beasts to some sanctuary, and re- 
flecting the practice of the time when local 
sanctuaries were legal (see Bxod. 20 : 24) ; and pos- 
sibly when the final codification was made the 
exilic redactor contemplated only a restricted 
community such as on their return from the 
captivity would settle in the immediate vicinity 
of Jenisalem, and so accommodated the regula- 
tion to the single sanctuary (seever. 4). The 
permission of the Deuteronomist to slaughter 
and eat freely in the fields was necessary at the 
time when the rigid restriction of worship to the 
central sanctuary characteristic of Deuteronomy 
was enacted (see ceut. 12 : 15, le). 

8, 9. Sacrifices not to he offered except at 
the central sanctuary. This is simply the neg- 
ative side of the precept which has been given 
in positive form with the ritual of each kind of 
sacrifice — it being specified in each case that the 
ofiering shall be at the door of the tent of meet- 
ing. It includes in the prohibition the foreigner 
dwelling among the people, and prescribes the 
punishment for transgression, namely, that the 
man shall be cut off from among his peo- 
ple by death. 

10-14. Blood not to he eaten: in theca^eof 
animals of a kind not offered in sacrifice, it is to 
he poured upon the earth. The prohibition of 
the eating of blood is repeated seven times in 
the Pentateuch : Gen. 9:4; Lev. 3 : 17 ; 7 : 26, 
27; 17 : 10-14; 19 : 26; Deut. 12 : 16, 23, 24; 



Ch. XVIII.] 



LEVITICUS 



75 



12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, 
No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any 
stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. 

13 And whatsoever man there be of the children 
of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among 
you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl 
that may be eaten ; he shall even pour out the 
blood thereof, and cover it with dust. 

14 For it is the life of all flesh ; the blood of it is for 
the life thereof : therefore I said unto the children 
of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of 
flesh : for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof : 
whosoever eateth it shall be cut off. 

15 And every soul that eateth that which died of 
itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be 
one of your own country, or a stranger, he shall 
both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, 
and be unclean until the even: then shall he be 
clean. 

16 But if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh ; 
then he shall bear his iniquity. 



12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No 
soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any 
stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. 

13 And whatsoever man there be of the children 
of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among 
them, which taketh in hunting any beast or 
fowl that may be eaten ; he shall pour out the 

14 blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For as to 
the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is all one 
with the life thereof : therefore I said unto the 
children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no 
manner of flesh : for the life of all flesh is the 
blood thereof : whosoever eateth it shall be cut 

15 off. And every soul that eateth that which dieth 
of itself, or that which is torn of beasts, whether 
he be homeboru or a stranger, he shall wash his 
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be un- 
clean until the even : then shall he be clean. 

16 But if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh, 
then he shall bear his iniquity. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, | 1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 



15 : 23. Compare comment on 3 : 17 ; 7 : 26, 27. 
The law in this place is especially extended to 
the foreigner dwelling among the Israelites; 
and it enters more particularly into the reason 
for the prohibition. That reason is that the 
blood is the life or soul, a principle which is 
also stated more briefly in Gen. 9 : 4 and Deut. 
12 : 23. As identified with the life of the an- 
imal the blood is set apart as the medium of 
atonement upon the altar; and this is to rest 
upon the conscience as a supplementary reason 
for abstaining from eating it. The last part of 
ver. 11 literally reads, the blood it maketh atone- 
ment by virtue of the soul, i. e., "It was not the 
blood as such, but the blood as the vehicle of the 
soul which possessed expiatory virtue " (Keil). 
In the case of edible game the fact of the blood 
being used for expiation could not be urged as a 
reason for abstaining, but the general principle 
is reverted to: As to the life of all flesh, 
the blood thereof is all one with the life 
thereof. 

15, 16. Purification in case one eats that 
which dies naturally or is torn by beasts. Con- 
sidering the strong feeling against eating flesh 
that is not properly slaughtered which is ap- 
parent in all the legislation (Exod. 22 : si ; Deut. 
u : 21)^ one is struck by the easy form of purifi- 
cation here prescribed for the reinstatement of 
the offender. If this was neglected, however, 
the person must bear his iniquity, i. e., became 
guilty (ver. 16) ; and under the general principle 
contained in 5 : 2 a sin offering was required. 
The law in this place reflects a different feeling 
toward the foreigner from that in Deut. 14 : 21 ; 
he being there so strongly differentiated from 
the "holy people" that the selling to him, or 
his eating, of a carcasg was entirely legitimate, 



while here he is included in the regulation. It 
is observable that the status of the foreigner 
throughout the priest code is more nearly like 
that of the Israelite than in Deuteronomy ; and 
by some modern critics this is thought to indi- 
cate a later stage of development in which the 
term foreigner is "on the way to assume the 
later technical sense of irpoo-jjAuros, the foreigner 
who, being circumcised and observing the law 
generally, is in full religious communion with 
Israel" (Driver on Deut. 14 : 21). "In the 
'Book of the Covenant' (Exod. 20 to 23) the 'so- 
journer' seems to have no legal status, but there 
is the injunction not to oppress him (Exod. 22 : 21 ,- 
23 : 9) ; in the Decalogue (Exod. 20 : 10) he is com- 
manded to observe the Sabbath. In Deuteron- 
omy he is often commended to the charitable 
regard and equity of the Israelite, but in one 
respect (Deut. u : 21) the two are on a different 
footing. His complete equalization with the 
native Israelite, such as we find in P (e. g., 24 : 22 ; 
Exod. 12 : 49)^ dates from the time when Israel was 
becoming a religious community rather than a 
nation" (Driver). 



Chap. 18. Unlawful marriages and 
LUSTS. This chapter consists of a central por- 
tion made up of specific laws (ver. 6-23), with an 
introduction containing a general exhortation 
enforced by a promise (ver. 1-5) and a conclusion 
consisting of warnings and threatenings (ver, 
24-30). The peculiar style of the laAv of holi- 
ness is especially apparent in the introduction 
and conclusion. The laivs are in the second 
person singular, while the introduction and 
conclusion are in the second person plural. 

1-5. Parenetic introduction. 2. This intro- 
duction commences and ends with that note of 



76 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XVIII. 



2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, I am the Lord your God. 

3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein 
ye dwelt, shall ye not do : and after the doings of 
the land of Canaan, whither 1 bring you, shall ye 
not do : neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. 

4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine or- 
dinances, to walk therein : I am the Lord your God. 

5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my 
judgments : which if a man do, he shall live in 
them : I am the Lord. 

6 None of you shall approach to any that is near 
of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness : I am the 
Lord. 

7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness 
of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover : she is thy 
mother ; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 

8 The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou 
not uncover : it is thy father's nakedness. 

9 The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of 
thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she 
be born at home, or born abroad, even their naked- 
ness thou shalt not uncover. 

10 The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy 
daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt 
not uncover : for their's is thine own nakedness. 

11 The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, 
begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt 
not uncover her nakedness. 



2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 

3 them, I am the Lord your God. After the doings 
of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye 
not do : and after the doings of the land of 
Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do : 

4 neither shall ye walk in their statutes. My 
judgements shall ye do, and my statutes shall 
ye keep, to walk therein : I am the Lord your 

5 God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and 
my judgements : which if a man do, he shall 
live in them : I am the Lord. 

6 None of you shall approach to any that is near 
of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness : I am 

7 the Lord. The nakedness of thy father, even 
the nakedness of thy mother, shaJt thou not un- 
cover : she is thy mother ; thou shalt not uncover 

8 her nakedness. The nakedness of thy father's 
wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's 

9 nakedness. The nakedness of thy sister, the 
daughter of thy father, or the daughter of thy 
mother, whether born at home, or born abroad, 
even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. 

10 The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy 
daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou 
shalt not uncover : for theirs is thine own naked- 

11 ness. Thenakednessof thy father's wife's daugh- 
ter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou 



the law of holiness so well calculated to stir the 
conscience of a peculiar people, I am the 
Lord your God, Jehovah. It is a general ad- 
monition not to do after the doings of the Egyp- 
tians and Canaanites, but to walk in the statutes 
and judgments of Jehovah. Of these precepts 
it is said: 5. Which if a man do, he shall 
live in them, an expression which is used 
thrice verbatim by Ezekiel (20 : 11, 13, 21) and 
once in the Levitical confession in Nehemiah 
(9 : 29). Paul quotes it twice as a proof that the 
law as a whole was intended as a means of sal- 
vation or eternal life (Rom. 10 : 5 ; Gai. 3 : 12), and 
our Lord makes the same claim for it in his 
teachings (Luke 10 : 28). It appears, however, 
that Ezekiel, and probably also the present au- 
thor, intended to make no greater claim for the 
keeping of these statutes than that it would 
issue in long life and prosperity. Ezekiel, in- 
deed, seems to be speaking not of the law as a 
whole but of certain statutes which he charac- 
terized as tending to life, while others he con- 
trasted with these as not good, and not such that 
one could live in them (Kzek. 20 : 25). Among 
the latter statutes, those whose outcome was un- 
fortunate, was apparently that command given 
in Exodus (13 : 12) that all the firstborn should 
be set apart unto Jehovah, which under the 
pressure of superstitious fear had issued in some 
desolating form of idolatry (Ezek. 20 : 26). 

6-18. Unlawful marriages. The general 
principle is given in ver. 6 that none shall ap- 
proach to one that is near of kin for the purpose 
of carnal intercourse, while the following verses 
are by way of defining the prohibition in detail. 
An exhaustive list of proscribed degrees is per- 



haps not intended. The grandmother and the 
niece are omitted. The daughter and the full 
sister are not expressly mentioned, though they 
are necessarily implied in ver. 9, 17. The 
mother-in-law does not appear in this list, 
though she is specified in the curse in Deut. 
27 : 23. The prohibition relates to both mar- 
ried and unmarried sexual intercourse — tech- 
nically called "uncovering the nakedness" — 
but the reference is chiefly to the former. It is 
addressed to men and not to women ; and there- 
fore the reference in ver. 7 to the father's na- 
kedness indicates the father's honor as involved 
in that of the mother (see e. v.). In general 
(see ver. 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16) it is the houor of the 
man as the head of the family which is made 
the main consideration in impressing the person 
with the enormity of the crime. The oflenses 
specified in ver. 7, 8, 9, 15, 17 are expressly men- 
tioned in chap. 20 (n, 12, i*, n) as to be pun- 
ished by death; while on the other hand the 
only threat held out against the offenses men- 
tioned in ver. 12, 14, 15, 16 is that those commit- 
ting such crimes shall bear their iniquity, or die 
childless (see 20 : 19-21). The cases mentioned in 
ver. 10, 11 are passed over in chap. 20. 

8. Thy father's wife. This was Heuben's 
crime (Geo. 35 : 22 ; 49 : 3, i) and in Paul's time the 
oflense was held in such abhorrence as to be 
" not so much as named among the Gentiles" 
(1 Cor. 5:1). 9. Thy sister. It is difficult to 
distinguish this case from that in ver. 11, hut 
between them they certainly forbid connection 
with a half-sister. This rule does not seem to 
have been observed by the early Hebrews, as we 
should infer from the case of Abraham (Gen. 30 : 



Ch. XVIII.] 



LEVITICUS 



77 



12 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy 
father's sister : she is thy father's near kinswoman. 

13 Thou Shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy 
mother's sister : for she is thy mother's near kins- 
woman. 

14 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy 
father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his 
wife : she is thine aunt. 

15 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy 
daughter in law : she is thy son's wife ; thou shalt 
not uncover her nakedness. 

16 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy 
brother's wife : it is thy brother's nakedness. 

17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a 
woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take 
her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to 
uncover her nakedness ; for they are her near kins- 
women : it is wickedness. 

18 Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to 
vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other 
in her life time. 

19 Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to 
uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart 
for her uncleanness. 

20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy 
neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her. 

21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass 
through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou pro- 
fane the name of thy God : I am the Lord. 

22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with 
womankind : it is abomination. 



12 shalt not uncover her nakedness. Thou shalt 
not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister : 

13 she is thy father's near kinswoman. Thou shalt 
not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sis- 
ter: for she is thy mother's near kinswoman. 

14 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy 
father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his 

15 wife : she is thine aunt. Thou shalt not uncover 
the nakedness of thy daughter in law : she is 
thy sou's wife ; thou shalt not uncover her naked- 

16 ness. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of 
thy brother's wife : it is thy brother's nakedues.s. 

17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a 
woman and her daughter; thou shalt not take 
her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, 
to uncover her nakedness ; they are near kins- 

18 women : it is wickedness. And thou shalt not 
take a woman to her sister, to be a rival to her, 
to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in 

19 her life time. And thou shalt not approach unto 
a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as 

20 she is impure by her uncleanness. And thou 
shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, 

21 to defile thyself with her. And thou shalt not 
give any of thy seed to make them pass through 
the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the 

22 name of thy God : I am the Lord. Thou shalt 
not lie with mankind, as with womankind : it is 



13). 12. Thy father's sister. Moses himself 
was the fruit of such a connection as this, which 
does not appear to have been considered wrong 
when the children of Israel were in Egypt 
(seeExod. 6:20). There was perliaps greater prej- 
udice against the marriage of a nephew and 
aunt than against that of an uncle and niece, 
which is not mentioned here, and which is 
permitted by Jewish tradition, because in the 
former case the question of the kinswoman's 
superiority to the husband might be more likely 
to arise and become troublesome. 16. Thy 
brother's "wife. When the brother's widow 
was left without children it became the duty of 
the surviving brother, according to another 
stratum of the legislation, to take her to wife 

(see Deut. 25 : 5 ; cf. Matt. 22 : 24). This appears tO 

have been an old Hebrew custom (see Gen. 38 : s)^ 
which was perhaps recognized in Deuteronomy 
as an exception rendered necessary by the pecu- 
liar circumstances described, while the general 
rule is given here. " As the importance of the 
individual over the family increased, Levirate 
marriages were regarded with increasing dis- 
favor. They were discouraged by later Jewish 
feeling; and in Talmudic times (first to fifth 
cent. A. D.) legal authorities pronounced usually 
against them" (Driver). 18. A woman to 
her sister. This refers to the taking of two 
sisters as wives at the same time to be rivals to 
each other. The sharp dealing of Laban with 
Jacob in the matter of Leah and Eachel seems 
to have rankled in Israelitish memory (see Gen. 

29 : 15-30), 



19 - 23. Unchastity and Molech worship. 
19. Also thou shalt not approach, etc. 
This crime was to be visited with the heaviest 
penalty (see 20 -. is). 20. Moreover thou shalt 

not lie, etc. This comes under the explicit 
prohibition of the Decalogue (see Exod. 20 :u)^ 
and is also punished with the supreme penalty 

(20 : 10; Deut. 22 : 22 ; cf. John 8 : 5). 21. PaSS 

through the fire to Molech, l\i., pass through 
to Molech. The Molech — always with the article 
— is literally the king. The word consists of the 
consonants oimelek, "king," perhaps vocalized 
with the vowels of bosheth, " shame," in order 
to express the Jewish contempt and abhorrence 
for the heathen god. It is the name or title of 
the divinity which the men of Judah in the last 
days of the monarchy were Avont to propitiate 
by the sacrifice of their own children. This 
"causing to pass through the fire" appears 
from Ezek. 16 : 20, 21 to have been an actual 
slaying of the children rather than a mere con- 
secration to Molech by passing through or be- 
tween fires. The late rabbinical picture of a calf- 
headed image in which children were burned 
alive is of very slight authority. At the same 
time the allusions are not decisive as to whether 
the victims were first slain like any other burnt 
offering, or burned alive (comp. jer. 7 : 3i ; i9 : 5, 

with Ezek. 16 : 20 ; Tsa. 57 : 5 ; Jer. 19 : 4 : Ps. 106 : 38) 

or possibly, as the peculiar expression, " pass- 
ing through the fire," might indicate, subjected 
to a fiery ordeal involving i\\e risk, or almost 
the certainty, of death. Tliese horrid rites 
were associated especially with the valley of 



78 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XIX. 



23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile 
thyself therewith ; neither shall any woman stand 
before a beast to lie down thereto : it is confusion. 

24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things : 
for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast 
out before you : 

25 And the land is defiled : therefore I do visit 
the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself 
vomiteth out her inhabitants. 

26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my 
judgments, and shall not commit any of these abom- 
inations ; neither any of your own nation, nor any 
stranger that sojourneth among you : 

27 (For all these abominations have the men of 
the land done, which were before you, and the land 
is defiled ;) 

28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye 
defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before 
you. 

29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abom- 
inations, even the souls that commit thejii shall be 
cut off from among their people. 

30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that 
ye commit not any one of these abominable cus- 
toms, which were committed before you, and that 
ye defile not yourselves therein : I am tlie Lord 
your God. 



23 abomination. And thou shalt not lie with any 
beast to defile thyself therewith : neither shall 
any woman stand before a beast, to lie down 
thereto : it is confusion, 

24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things : 
for in all these the nations are defiled which I 

25 cast out from before you : and the land is de- 
filed : therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof 
upon it, and the land vomiteth out her inhabit- 

26 ants. Ye therefore shall keep my statutes and 
my judgements, and shall not do any of these 
abominations; neither the homeborn, nor the 

27 stranger that sojourneth among you: (for all 
these abominations have the men of the land 
done, which were before you, and the land is 

28 defiled ;) that the land vomit not you out also, 
when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation 

29 that was before you. For whosoever shall do 
any of these abominations, even the souls that 
do them shall be cut off from among their peo- 

30 pie. Therefore shall ye keep my charge, that 
ye do not any of these abominable customs, 
which were done before you, and that ye defile 
not yourselves therein : I am tiie Lord your God. 



CHAPTEK XIX. 

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, | l AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 



Hinnom or Tophet where they were practised ; 
and possibly these horrible associations may 
have contributed to qualify that ill-omened 
valley to furnish the name Gehenna, "land of 
Hinnom," to the place of eternal fire, or pun- 
ishment, as conceived of in the New Testament 
times (see Matt. 5 : 22, 29, 3o). The children of Is- 
rael seem to have developed a propensity for 
this gloomy form of worship, derived from the 
Canaanites, in the later days of the monarchy 
when under the anxieties and miseries caused 
by the advance of the Assyrian power the old 
gladness of Israel's faith was swallowed up in a 
sense of divine anger, and all religion was trans- 
formed into servile fear. "At the same time 
the horrid ritual was so closely associated with 
Jehovah- worship (Ezek. 23 : 39) that Jeremiah 
more than once finds it necessary to protest that 
it is not of Jehovah's institution (Jer. T : si ; 
19 : 5), So too, it is the idea of sacrificing the 
firstborn to Jehovah that is discussed and re- 
jected in Micah 6:7" (W. R. Smith). Whether 
these overwhelming temptations to propitiate 
an angry deity by human sacrifice existed in 
the time of Moses, or whether, on the other 
hand, these precepts reflect the conditions of 
the time when the priest code was put into its 
final shape, is a question which the present 
state of our knowledge leaves undecided. The 
rites connected with the worship of Molech are 
not known. From the connection in which the 
prohibitions of Molech worship are found, and 
from the expressions associated with them, 
these practices appear to have been essentially 



connected with magical arts, probably also with 

unlawful lusts (see 20 : 5, 6 ; Deut. 18 : 10, 11 ) and 

with some particular form of profane swearing 

(see last clause of this ver. ; 20 : 3 ; cf. Zeph. 1:5). The 

law in ver. 22, though general in its word- 
ing, is probably aimed at the same practice as 
that prohibited in Deut. 23 : 17, namely, religious 
prostitution, or prostitution in connection with 
the temple worship, a practice of Canaanitish 
origin which made its way into Israel and 
Judah in the days of the monarchy (see i Kings 

14 : 24 ; 15 : 12 ; 22 : 46 ; 2 Kings 23 : 7). 

24-30, Warning conclusion. The warning 
circumstance which is held up before the chil- 
dren of Israel, evidently as a great palpable 
object-lesson, is the destruction of the Canaan- 
ites which, except as a matter of faith and in- 
tention, had not become a visible fact in the 
time of the wilderness journey. These nations 
had defiled the land with the crimes named, 
particularly, we may presume, those of abomi- 
nable unchastity and Molech worship. Their 
destruction is attributed to the visitation of 
God, and to the disgust of the very land itself 
which is described as vomiting them out. The 
people are warned against doing the like acts 
lest the land also eject them in the same way. 



Chap. 19. 1-8. A collection of mis- 
cellaneous LAWS. The precepts of this 
chapter are addressed to the whole congregation 
of Israel, and they inculcate especially those 
duties toward God and toward one's neighbor 
which are derived from the consideration of the 



Ch. XIX.] 



LEVITICUS 



79 



2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children 
of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy : for 
I the Lord your God am holy. 

3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his 
father, and keep my sabbaths : I am the Lord your 
God. 

4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves 
molten gods : I am the Lord your God. 

5 And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings 
unto the Lord, ye shall offer it at your own will. 

6 It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and 
on the morrow: and if ought remain until the 
third day, it shall be burnt in the lire. 

7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is 
abominable ; it shall not be accepted. 

8 Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his 
iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed 
thing of the Lord : and that soul shall be cut off 
from among his people. 

9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, 
thou Shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, 
neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy 
harvest. 

10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither 
shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard ; thou 
shalt leave them for the poor and stranger : I am 
the Lord your God. 

11 Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither 
lie one to another. 

12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, 
neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God : I 
am the Lord. 

13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither 
rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not 
abide with thee all night until the morning. 

14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stum- 
blingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God : 
I am the Lord. 

15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: 
thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor 
honour the person of the mighty : but in righteous- 
ness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. 



2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children 
of Israel, and say unto them. Ye shall be holy : 

3 for I the Lord your God am holy. Ye shall fear 
every man his mother, and his father, and ye 
shall keep my sabbaths : I am the Lord your God. 

4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves 

5 molten gods: I am the Lord your God. And 
when ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto 
the Lord, ye shall offer it that ye may be ac- 

6 cepted. It shall be eaten the same day ye offer 
it, and on the morrow : and if aught remain 
until the third day, it shall be burnt with fire. 

7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is 

8 an abomination ; it shall not be accepted : but 
every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, 
because he hath profaned the holy thing of the 
Lord : and that soul shall be cut off from his 
people. 

9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, 
thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy 
field, neither shalt thou gather the gleaning of 

10 thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vine- 
yard, neither shalt thou gather the fallen fruit 
of thy vineyard ; thou shalt leave them for the 
poor and for the stranger : I am the Lord your 

11 God. Ye shall not steal ; neither shall ye deal 

12 falsely, nor lie one to another. And ye shall not 
swear by my name falsely, so that thou profane 

13 the name of thy God : I am the Lord. Thou 
shalt not oppress thy neighbour, nor rob him : 
the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with 

14 thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt 
not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock 
before the blind, but thou shalt fear thy God : I 

15 am the Lord. Y'e shall do no unrighteousness 
in j udgement : thou shalt not respect the person 
of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty : 
but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neigh- 



holiness of the God vrith whom each one had to 
do. 2. The keynote is Ye shall be holy, for 

I am holy (cf. n : U, 45 : 20 : 7 ; 1 Peter 1 : 16), This 

is the characteristic note of the Law of Holiness ; 
but here the divine holiness seems to be con- 
ceived of as the prototype and sanction of ethical 
worth and mercy, rather than as a mere sepa- 
rateness or distance from human frailty such as 
forms the sanction for ceremonial separateness 
from common life. This precept is ethically 
more explicit than the Shema of Deuteronomy 
(6:5), which our Lord calls the first and great 
commandment, because it expressly teaches the 
moral nature of Jehovah, while the other as- 
sumes that as known and simply emphasizes his 
unity ; but it is in this chapter that the further 
duty of love to our neighbor — the second com- 
mandment — is deduced from the primary obliga- 
tion of godlike holiness (see on ver. 18). The laws 
in this first group are analogous to those of the 
first table of the Decalogue. We have here the 
the fifth and the fourth (ver. 3) and the first and 
second commandments (ver. 4). The rest of the 
paragraph is taken up with a repetition and 
amplification of the regulation already given in 
7 : 15-18. 5. Ye shall offer it at your own 
will) rather, that ye may he accepted (see r. v.; 



comp. 1:3). In the seventh chapter {loc. cit.) the 
permission to eat on the next day is given only 
in case of a vow or a freewill ofiering, while in 
case of a thanksgiving offering the sacrifice must 
be eaten the same day. 

9-18. The commands of this group are 
mostly analogous to those of the second table of 
the Decalogue, except ver. 12 which is the same 
as the third commandment. The humane teach- 
ing of ver. 9, 10 is repeated in 23 : 22, and still 
more fully in Deut. 24 : 19-21. 10. Every 
grape, roilieY, fallen fruit, as in R. V. The 
word vineyard may be taken to mean any fruit 
garden. "The poor is the poor Israelite — the 
stranger is properly the foreigner, who could 
possess no land of his own in the land of Israel " 
("Bible Commentary"). In ver. 11 we have 
the eighth commandment, and it is expanded so 
as to include a prohibition of cheating and lying. 
The commands in ver. 13-18 indicate a singular 
humanity and delicacy whose spirit is fittingly 
summed up in the last clause of ver. 18. 13. 
Defraud thy neighbor should be oppress 
thy neighbor (R, V.), the crime being dis- 
tinguished from that in ver. 11 as a crime of 
violence or power rather than of craft. The 
latter clause of this verse inculcates a thought- 



80 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XIX. 



16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer 
among thy people : neither shalt thou stand against 
the blood'of tliy neighbour : I am the Lord. 

17 Thou shalt not iiate thy brother in thine heart : 
thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and 
not suffer sin upon him. 

18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge 
against the children of thy people, but thou shalt 
love thy neighbour as thyself : I am the Lord. 

19 Ye" shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let 
thy cattle gender with a diverse kind : thou shalt 
not sow thy field with mingled st-ed : neither shall 
a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon 
thee. 

20 And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, 
that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and 
not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her: she 
shall be scourged ; they shall not be put to death, 
because she was not free. 

21 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto 
the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the 
congregation, eveyi a ram for a trespass offering. 

22 And the priest shall make an atonement for 
him with the ram of the trespass offering before the 



16 bour. Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale- 
bearer among thy people : neither shalt thou 
stand against the blood of thy neighbour ; I am 

17 the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in 
thine heart : thou shalt surely rebuke thy neigh- 

18 bour, and not bear sin because of him". Thou 
shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge 
against the children of thy people, but thou shalt 
love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord. 

19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let 
thy cattle gender Avith a diverse kind : thou shalt 
not sow thy field with two kinds of seed : neither 
shall there come upon thee a garment of two 

20 kinds of stuff mingled together. And whosoever 
lieih carnally with a woman, that is a bond- 
maid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all 
redeemed, nor freedom given her ; they shall be 
punished ; they shall not be put to death, be- 

21 cause she was not free. And he shall bring his 
guilt offering unto the Lord, unto the door of the 
tent of meeting, even a ram for a guilt offering. 

22 And the priest shall make atonement for him 
with the ram of the guilt offering before the 



falness for the poor — a golden-rule considerate- 
ness for his condition as dependent on his daily 
wage such as was no doubt often neglected (see 
James 5:4). At the Same time the poor are not 
dealt with in any demagogue's spirit, nor stirred 
up against the rich as a class. In ver. 15 it is to be 
observed that they are no more to be treated with 
respect of persons than the mighty. 16. This 
is practically the ninth commandment some- 
what enlarged in its scope. To stand against 
the blood of thy neighbonristoseekorwish 
to destroy him by legal means, using the instru- 
mentality of the courts against him in the spirit 
of revenge rather than of justice. IT. Thou 
shalt in anywise rebuke, etc. The sense 
would he more nearly expre.ssed by : Thou shalt 
takepahis to set thy neighbor right, and not bear 
sin on his account, that is, do not leave him in 
the dark, or pursue him with secret hatred. All 
these verses inculcate such a spirit of neighbor- 
liness and avoidance of malice as is expressed in 
general terms in ver. 18, while for exalted deli- 
cacy and thoughtfulness nothing could exceed 
the beauty of ver, 14 which forbids taking ad- 
vantage of the physically unfortunate. The 
summary precept in the second half of ver. 18, 
the benefit of which is extended in ver. 3-1 to the 
foreigner, was counted by our Saviour as one of 
the two commands on which hang all the law 
and the prophets (Matt. 22 : 39, 40). Its importance 
was very strongly felt by Paul (Kom. 13 : 9 ; Gai. 

5 : 14) and James (James 2:8). 

19-22. 19. This verse in form commences 
a new section with a distinct introduction, Ye 
shall keep my statutes. These four verses, 
however, seem to be somewhat miscellaneous, 
or dislocated and alien to the general tenor 
of the chapter. Yer. 20, for instance, which, 
unlike the verses preceding, is in the third 



person, seems to be more properly of a piece 
with chap. 20, where it would stand suitably 
after ver. 10. Yer. 21, 22, prescribing a guilt 
offering, are more after the manner of the priest 
code than of this Law of Holiness. Thou 
shalt not let thy cattle, etc. The use 
of mules was customary, at least in the royal 
family, in David's time and onward (see 2 sam. 

13:29; 18:9; 1 Kings 1:33) but thcSC may haVC 

been imported from abroad (see i Kings lo : 25). 
Thou shalt not sow thy field, etc. In 
Deuteronomy (22 : 9) it is the vineyard, and the 
penalty is that the seed sown and also the prod- 
uct of the vineyard shall become consecrated 
to the sanctuary. In the description of the gar- 
ment of mixed stuff, the addition, of linen and 
woolen, in the authorized version, is imported 
by the translators from Deut. 22 : 11. The word 
rjp>'^', shaatnez, used in both of these passages 
to describe the stuff, is a peculiar one whose 
meaning is not exactly known ; and it appears 
that only the particular mixture thus named 
was forbidden, as it is not unlikely, if we follow 
Josephus and the rabbins, that the priests' gar- 
ments and the cm-tains of the tabernacle were 
made of some permitted mixtui-e of linen and 
woolen. 20. She shall be scourged, rather, 
there shall be judicial investigation, but the 
penalty according to the Mishnah was scourging. 
Death was the punishment for unfaithfulness in 
a betrothed woman, according to Deuteronomy 
(see Deut. 22 : 23, 24) ^ and shc was prcsumcd un- 
faithful if she was in a position to summon help 
by an outcry and did not. The apparent dif- 
ference in these regulations may perhaps be ex- 
plained by the fact that here the word translated 
betrothed is not the regular word, and may 
mean simply legally secured, e. g. as a concubine. 
21, 22. The guilt offering was due because the 



Ch. XIX.] 



LEVITICUS 



SI 



Lord for his sin which he hath done : and the sin 
which he hath done shall be forgiven him. 

23 And when ye shall come into the land, and 
shall have planted all manner of trees for food, 
then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircum- 
|Cised : three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto 
[you : it shall not be eaten of. 

F 24 But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof 
shall be holy to praise the Lord withal. 

25 And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit 
thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase 
[thereof : I am the Lord your God. 
I 26 Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood : 
jieither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe 
Tjimes. 

27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, 
neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. 

28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh 
for the dead, nor print any marks upon you : I am 
the Lord. 

29 Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to 
be a whore ; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the 
land become full of wickedness. 

30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my 
sanctuary : I am the Lord. 

31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, 
neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them : 
I am. the Lord your God. 

32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and 
honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God : 
I am the Lord. 

33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your 
land, ye shall not vex him. 



Lord for his sin which he hath sinned : and he 
shall be forgiven for his sin which he hath 

23 sinned. And when ye shall come into the land, 
and shall have planted all manner of trees for 
food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as 
their uncircumcision : three years shall they be 
as uncircumcised unto you ; it shall not be eaten. 

24 But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall 

25 be holy, for giving praise unto the Lord. And 
in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, 
that it may yield unto you the increase thereof : 

26 I am the Lord your God. Ye shall not eat any 
thing with the blood : neither shall ye use en- 

27 chantments, nor practise augury. Ye shall not 
round the corners of your heads, neither shalt 

28 thou mar the corners of thy beard. Ye shall 
not make any cuttings in your flesh for the 
dead, nor print any marks upon you : I am the 

29 Lord. Profane not thy daughter, to make her a 
harlot ; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the 

30 land become full of wickedness. Ye shall keep 
my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary : I am 

31 the Lord. Turn ye not unto them that have 
familiar spirits, nor unto the wizards ; seek them 
not out, to be defiled by them : I am the Lord 

32 your God. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary 
head, and honour the face of the old man, and 

33 thou shalt fear thy God : I am the Lord. And 
if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye 



person had not only sinned with the woman, but 
had inflicted a damage on the rights of the 
master. See on the guilt ofiering, 5 : 14, seq. 

23-37. This group of verses is a kind of sup- 
plement to ver. 2-19, with a special introduction 
in ver. 23, and containing injunctions of a some- 
what more general character. The section ex- 
plicitly refers to the condition of things when 
the people of Israel shall have entered upon 
their anticipated possession, and is pervaded 
with the apprehension of the corrupting idol- 
atrous influences with which they will be sur- 
rounded. All that goes to foster the feeling that 
they are a separate people is carefully prescribed. 
The fruit trees which are planted (ver. 23-25) are 
to be treated in a way suggestive of the abhor- 
rence of uncircumcision. The eating of meat 
"upon the blood," i. e. not properly slaughtered 
(ver. 26), which is many times forbidden (see on 
17 : 10) is again referred to, perhaps because 
among the heathen there may have been idol- 
atrous or magic rites embodying this practice 
(cf. Ezek. 33 : 25). The rouuding of the corners 
of the head (ver. 27), according to Herodotus, 
was practised by the desert Arabs in honor of 
their god Orotal, whence Jeremiah nicknamed 
them " clipped-corners " (Jer. 9 : 26 ; 25 : 23 ; 49 : 32). 
The injunction against clipping the corners of 
the beard is especially emphasized for the priests 
in 21 : 5. The cutting of the flesh (ver. 28) in 
token of grief was very common among the ex- 
citable races of the East (see Jer. le : 6 ; 48 : 37), but 
it was especially characteristic of the gloomy 



and fanatical heathen (see 1 Kings is : 28). The 
tattoo marks (ver. 28 b) were not a token of grief, 
but were often made with some superstitious 
significance. Finally, the temptation to prosti- 
tution (ver. 29) lurked everywhere, and the act 
often had a religious sanction (cf. n •. i -, Num. 
25:1, seq.). The great safeguard, calculated to 
keep strong the sense of national and religious 
separateness, was faithftdness and reverence for 
Jehovah's sabbaths and his sanctuary (ver. 30). 
It was the eflbrt to give these, especially the 
latter, their essential significance and power 
which led to the careful regulations about bring- 
ing beasts for slaughter to the door of the tent 
of meeting (see 17 : 1-9). 

Faithfulness to God's sabbaths and reverence 
for his sanctuary would awaken confidence in 
his guidance, and so preserve the people from 
the temptation to turn aside after superstitious 
means of communicating with the unseen world. 
31. Them that have familiar spirits . . • 
wizards, rather, ghosts and familiar spirits. 
The words used, D'JJ^'l', ilbi?, 'obhoth, yidd^ 
'onim, refer here to the spirits themselves rather 
than to the persons, as also in 20 : 27, where the 
expression is, "a man or woman in whom is a 
spirit or a familiar." The 'obhoth were appar- 
ently speaking spirits within the soothsayer, 
whose oracles came with a twittering or weak 
and muttering sound as if from the person's 
belly (isa- 8 : 19) or by the ventriloquist's art 
were made to seem to come from tlie ground 
(isa. 29 : 4). The woid translated " wizard," which 



F 



82 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XX. 



34 But the stranger that dvvelleth with you shall 
be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt 
love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the 
land of Egypt : 1 ain the Lord your God. 

35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, 
in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 

36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and 
a just hin, shall ye have : I am the Lord your God, 
which brought you out of the land of Egypt. 

37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and 
all my judgments, and do them ; I am the Lord. 



34 shall not do him wrong. The stranger that 
sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the 
homeborn among you, and thou shalt love him 
as thyself ; for ye were strangers in the land of 

35 Egypt : 1 am the Lord your God. Ye shall do no 
unrighteousness in judgement, in meteyard, in 

36 weight, or in measure. Just balances, just 
weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye 
have: I am the Lord your God, which brought 

37 you out of the land of Egypt. And ve shall ob- 
serve all my statutes, and all my judgements, 
and do them : I am the Lord. 



CHAPTER XX. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, 
Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the 
strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of 
his seed unto Molech ; he shall surely be put to 
death : the people of the land shall stone him with 
fetcjnes. 

3 And I will set my face against that man, and 
will cut him oS from among his people ; because he 
hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my 
sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. 

4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide 
their eyes from the man, when he giveth of liis 
seed unto Molech, and kill him not : 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Moreover, thou shalt say to the children of Is- 
rael, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, 
or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that 
giveth of his seed unto Molech ; he shall surely 
be put to death : the people of the land shall 

3 stone him with stones, i also will set my face 
against tliat man, and will cut him off from 
among his people ; because he hath given of his 
seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to 

4 profane my holy name. And if the peop'le of the 
land do any ways hide their eyes from that man, 
when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and put 



is from the root to know, is apparently another 
term for the same spirit only under a different 
aspect, that of being "familiar" with the par- 
ticular person, or perhaps being acquainted with 
the secrets of the unseen world. The second 
term is never used except in connection with 
the first. Eespeet for the aged (ver. 32) was and 
is a virtue in which most of the Eastern nations 
are exemplary. As to the stranger (ver. 34)^ or 
foreigner, the Israelite is expressly forbidden in 
Exod. 22 : 21 ; 23 : 9 to oppress him, and on the 
same ground as here, namely, that he himself 
has been a stranger in the land of Egypt. Here, 
however, he is bidden to take the foreigner to 
his heart and treat him like a brother, or love 
him as himself. The duty of conducting all ex- 
changes with just measures (ver. 35, 36) is a fre- 
quent theme for the Old Testament teacher 

(cf. Deut. 25 : 13-16 ; Prov. 11 : 1 ; 16 : 11 ; 20 : 10 ; Ezek. 
45 : 10 ; Amos 8:5; Micah 6 : 10, ll). The Cphah waS 

the standard of dry measure, and according to 
the estimation of the rabbins contained a little 
over half a bushel ; the hin was the standard of 
liquid measure, and contained a little less than 
three quarts. The whole is concluded with the 
solemn repetition of the formula so often occur- 
ring in this Law of Holiness, " I am Jehovah 
your God, who brought you out of the land of 
Egypt." 



Chap. 20. Penalties enjoined foe cer- 
tain OFFENSES SPECIFIED IN CHAP. 18, 19. 
1-7. Molech woy^ship and divination. This 
crime of Molech worship is definitely prohibited 
in 18 : 21. For an account of Molech, see the 



comment on that verse. The penalty for that 
form of idolatry is here annexed : the people 
shall stone the offender with stones, a form of 
capital punishment calculated to commit all 
the people in the most public way against the 
crime, as they all participated in the punish- 
ment as executioners. Sojourners or foreigners 
were as much subject to the law^ in this matter 
as the people of the land. If this retributory 
arrangement should miscarry on account of the 
idolater's personal popularity among the people 
(ver. 4, 5), still Jehovah's displeasure would re- 
main, and he would set his face against that 
man and his family and all those who were 
carried away by the impure fascination of that 
base superstition to cut them off from among 
their people. And the soul that turn- 
eth, etc. (see on 19 : 3i). This form of supersti- 
tion, like the Molech worship, is called going a 
whoring, as if its fascination were something 
like that appeal to the unreined baser nature 
made by the immodest and impure. The term 
is often used simply for spiritual declension 
from the worship of Jehovah, a sin which, in 
correspondence with the Hebrew prophetic idea 
of Jehovah's relation with his people as being 
like that of a husband to his wife, would possess 
the nature of adultery. It is interesting to ob- 
serve how deeply that connubial consciousness 
of the church, and even of the personal wor- 
shiper, as the spouse of God pervades the Jewish 
and the early Christian religious feeling, so that 
even James cries out against the avaricious and 
self-indulgent, "Ye adulteresses, know ye not 
that the love of the world is enmity against 



Ch. XX.] 



LEVITICUS 



83 



5 Then I will set my face against that man, and 
against his family, and will cut him off, and all 
that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom 
with Molech, from among their people. 

6 And the soul that turneth after such as have 
familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring 
after them, I will even set my face against that 
soul, and will cut him off from among his people. 

7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and he ye holy: 
for I am the Lord your God. 

8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them : I 
am the Lord which sanctify you. 

9 For every one that curseth his father or his 
mother shall surely be put to death : he hath 
cursed his father or his mother ; his blood shall be 
upon him. 

10 And the man that committeth adultery with 
another man's wife, even he that committeth adul- 
tery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and 
the adulteress shall surely be put to death. 

11 And the man that lieth with his father's wife 
hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of 
them shall surely be put to death ; their blood shall 
be upon them. 

12 And if a man lie with his daughter in law, 
both of them shall surely be put to death : they 
have wrought confusion ; their blood shall be upon 
them. 

13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth 
with a woman, both of them have committed an 
abomination : they shall surely be put to death ; 
their blood shall be upon them. 

14 And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is 
wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he 
and they ; that there be no wickedness among 
you. 

15 And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely 
be put to death : and ye shall slay the beast. 

16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and 
lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and 
the beast : they shall surely be put to death ; their 
blood shall be upon them. 

17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father's 
daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her 
nakedness, and she see his nakedness ; it is a 
wicked thing ; and they shall be cut off in the sight 
of their people : he hath uncovered his sister's na- 
kedness ; he shall bear his iniquity. 

18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having 
her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness ; he 
hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncov- 
ered the fountain of her blood : and both of them 
shall be cut off from among their people. 

God?" (James 4:4); and with the belief that he 
is reproducing the spirit of the Old Testament 
writings, he likens the intense yearning of the 
indwelling divine Spirit, in the face of such un- 
faithfulness, to a connubial jealousy (iwd., ver. 5), 
The form of expression, I will set my face 
against is characteristic of this Law of Holi- 
ness (see ver. 3, 5, 6 ; 17 : 10 ; 26 : 17), Ver. 7 is a SOrt 

of general spiritual expression for the specific 
duties named in the preceding verses. 

8-21. Unlatoful marriages and unchastity. 
This section relates to the marriages and con- 
nections prohibited in chap. 18, with the excep- 
tion of ver. 9. It begins with a fresh introduc- 
tion, ye shall keep my statutes, like that 
in 19 : 19. The crime of cursing father or mother 
(ver. 9) is threatened with the death penalty also 
in the book of the Covenant (Exod. 21 : 17) and 
made the subject of a solenju curse in Deuter- 
onomy (27 : 16). It is noteworthy how the crime 



5 him not to death : then I will set my face against 
that man, and against his family, and will cut 
him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to 
commit whoredom with Molech, from among 

6 their people. And the soul that turneth unto 
them that have familiar spirits, and unto the 
wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even 
set my face against that soul, and will cut him 

7 off from among his people. Sanctify yourselves 
therefore, and be ye holy : for I am the Lord 

8 your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and 
do them : I am the Lord which sanctify you. 

9 For every one that curseth his father or his 
mother shall surely be put to death: he hath 
cursed his father or his mother ; his blood shall 

10 be upon him. And the man that committeth 
adultery with another man's wife, even he that 
committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, 
the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be 

11 put to death. And the man that lieth with his 
father's wife hath uncovered his father's naked- 
ness : both of them shall surely be put to death ; 

12 their blood shall be upon them. And if a man 
lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall 
surely be put to death : they have wrought con- 

13 fusion ; their blood shall be upon them. And if 
a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, 
both of them have committed abomination : 
they shall surely be put to death ; their blood 

14 shall be upon them. And if a man take a wife 
and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be 
burnt with fire, both he and they ; that there be 

15 no wickedness among you. And if a man lie 
with a beast, he shall surely be put to death : 

16 and ye shall slay the beast. And if a woman 
approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, 
thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast : they 
shall surely be put to death ; their blood shall 

17 be upon them. And if a man shall take his 
sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's 
daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his 
nakedness; it is a sham.eful thing; and they 
shall be cut off in the sight of the children of 
their people : he hath uncovered his sister's na- 

18 kedness ; he shall bear his iniquity. And if a 
man shall lie with a woman having her sick- 
ness, and shall uncover her nakedness ; he hath 
made naked her fountain, and she hath uncov- 
ered the fountain of her blood : and both of 
them shall be cut off from among their people. 



of cursing a person is made of more importance 
than modern feeling is apt to attribute to it, as 
if the curse or imprecation had a validity to 
harm its victim in some supernatural way be- 
yond the mere outrage to his feelings. Compare 
19 : 14, where the legislation defends the un- 
heeding deaf from such an infliction. Our Sav- 
iour also cites this penal legislation (Matt. 15 : 4; 
Mark 7 : 10) when denouncing the hypocrisy of 
the Pharisees. The offenses mentioned in ver. 
10-16, all of which are prohibited in chap. 18, 
are to be punished by the death of both offend- 
ers, including the beasts that are abused. In 
ver. 17, 18 the punishment is a cutting off" from 
the people, by which Keil understands death, 
at least an outlawry which would take away 
the security and happiness or self-respect of the 
culprit. For the crime specified in ver. 14, the 
punisliment is heightened by the burning of 
the bodies of the offenders after they are put to 



84 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXI. 



19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of 
thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for 
he uucovereth his near kin : they sliall bear their 
iniquity. 

20 And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, 
he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they 
shall bear their sin ; they shall die childless. 

21 And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it 
is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his broth- 
er's nakedness ; they shall be childless. 

22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all 
my judgments, and do them : that the land, whither 
I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. 

23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the 
nation, which I cast out before you : for they com- 
mitted all these things, and therefore I abhorred 
them. 

24 But I have said unto you. Ye shall inherit 
their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, 
a land that floweth with milk and honey : I am the 
Lord your God, which have separated you from 
other people. 

25 Ye shall therefore put difference between 
clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean 
fowls and clean : and ye shall not make your souls 
abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner 
of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which 
1 have separated from you as unclean. 

26 And ye shall be holy unto me : for I the Lord 
am holy, and have severed you from other people, 
that ye should be mine. 

27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar 
spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to 
death : they shall stone them with stones : their 
blood shall be upon them. 



19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of 
thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister : for 
he hath made naked his near kin: they shall 

20 bear their iniquity. And if a man shall lie with 
his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's 
nakedness : they shall bear their sin ; they shall 

21 die childless. And if a man shall take his 
brother's wife, it is impurity: he hath uncov- 
ered his brother's nakedness; they shall be 
childless. 

22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and 
all my judgements, and do them : that the land, 
whither I bring you to dwell therein, vomit you 

23 not out. And ye shall not walk in the customs 
of the nation, which I cast out before you : for 
they did all these things, and therefore I ab- 

24 hoired them. But I have said unto you, Ye 
shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto 
you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and 
honey : I am the Lord your God, which have 

25 separated you from the peoples. Ye shall there- 
fore separate between the clean beast and the 
unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the 
clean : and ye shall not make your souls abom- 
inable by beast, or by fowl, or by any thing 
wherewiih the ground teemeth, which I have 

26 separated from you as unclean. And ye shall be 
holy unto me : for I the Lord am holy, and have 
separated you from the peoples, that ye should 
be mine. 

27 A man also or a woman that hath a familiar 
spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to 
death : they shall stone them with stones ; their 
blood shall be upon them. 



CHAPTEK XXI. 



1 AND the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the 
priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, 
There shall none be defiled for the dead among his 
people : 

2 But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, 
for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, 
and for his daughter, and for his brother, 

3 And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto 
him, which hath had no husband ; for her may he 
be defiled. 

4 But he shall not defile himself, being a chief 
man among his people, to profane himself. 

5 They shall not make baldness upon their head, 
neither shall they shave off the corner of their 
beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. 



1 AND the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto 
the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them. 
There shall none defile himself for the dead 

2 among his people ; except for his kin, that is 
near unto him, for his mother, and for his 
father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and 

3 for his brother; and for his sister a virgin, that 
is near unto him, which hath had no husband, 

4 for her may he defile himself. He shall not de- 
file himself, being a chief man among his people, 

5 to profane himself. They shall not make bald- 
ness upon their head, neither shall they shave 
off the corner of their beard, nor make any cut- 



death (cf. 21 : 9 ; Josh. 7 : 25). In ver. 19-21, JellO- 

vali seems to reserve the punishment to himself, 
saying, they shall bear their iniquity, an 

expression which is explained in ver. 20, 21 as 
meaning that they shall die childless, 

22-27. Conclusion and supplement. Gen- 
eral faithfulness to Jehovah's statutes is again 
enjoined, as in ver. 8. The reasons for these 
regulations and the importance of the people's 
separateness are again emphasized, as in chap. 18. 
In connection with this obligation of separate- 
ness, recurrence is had in ver. 25 to the distinc- 
tions between clean and unclean beasts treated 
at length in chap. 11. This verse has features 
in common especially with 11 : 43-45. Modern 
critics very generally recognize the marked affin- 
ity, or identity of origin, of much of that eleventh 
chapter with this Law of Holiness. 

Ver. 27 is supplementary to ver. 6. 



Chap. 21, 32. Eegulations touching- 
priests AND OFFERINGS. 

Chap. 21. 1-9. Rules to he observed in 
certain cases of domestic life by the ordinary 
priest. These rules relate especially to the 
priests defiling themselves for the dead, i. e., 
coming in contact with their bodies so as to 
become unclean, and to the purity of their do- 
mestic relations. The pious offices of the dead 
by which one became unclean were denied to 
the priest except in the case of a few very near 
relatives, those who would form a part of the 
same family. Even the wife is not mentioned. 
The conception of the priest's office is dominated 
by the idea of separateness and purity rather 
than of sympathy. That picture of the good 
man acting as the servant and lowly helper of 
all in distress, carrying their troubles in his 
heart and alleviating their ills with the touch 



Ch. XXI.] 



LEVITICUS 



85 



6 They shall be holy unto their God, and not pro- 
fane the name of their God : for the offerings of the 
Lord made by fire, and the bread of their God, they 
do offer : therefore they shall be holy. 

7 They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or 
profane; neither shall they take a woman put 
away from her husband: for he is holy unto his 
God. 

8 Thou Shalt sanctify him therefore ; for he offer- 
eth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto 
thee : for I the Lord, which sanctify you, am holy. 

9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profane 
herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her 
father : she shall be burnt with tire. 

10 And he that is the high priest among his breth- 
ren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, 
and that is consecrated to put on the garments, 
shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes ; 



6 tings in their flesh. They shall be holy unto 
their God, and not profane the name of their 
God : for the offerings of the Lord made by fire, 
the bread of their God, they do offer : therefore 

7 they shall be holy. They shall not take a wo- 
man that is a harlot, or profane ; neither shall 
they take a woman put away from her husband : 

8 for he is holy unto his God. Thou shalt sanctify 
him therefore ; for he offereth the bread of thy 
God : he shall be holy unto thee : for I the Lord, 

9 which sanctify you, am holy. And the daughter 
of any priest, if she profane herself by playing 
the harlot, she profaneth her father: she shall 
be burnt with fire. 

10 And he that is the high priest among his 
brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil is 
poured, and that is consecrated to put on the 
garments, shall not let the hair of his head go 



of divine comfort, so characteristic of the best 
portrayals of the Christian pastor, is wanting in 
the Jewish conception of the model priest. The 
divine as the servant of the human was a con- 
ception introduced by Jesus Christ. The priest 
was rather the cold , dignified witness and expo- 
nent of the holiness of Jehovah and his oppo- 
siteness to death and corruption. For him to 
indulge in the ordinary public manifestations 
in token of grief for the dead was unprofessional 
conduct, and especially was he to avoid those 
eccentricities of the toilet which might convey 
a suggestion of pagan feeling. Any such pro- 
faning or secularizing of their high office was 
forbidden to the priests because it was their 
office to offer the sacrifices, the bread of their 
God. This expression, "food" or "bread of 
God," is characteristic of these two chapters, 
21, 22, though a similar form is used in 3 : 16. 
It is probably a very ancient designation, 
pointing back to the primitive conception of 
sacrifice as a meal with the deity worshiped. 
To avoid uncleanness, the priest would need to 
keep away from the tent or house where the 
corpse lay, as its presence, according to Num. 
19 : 14, communicated defilement to all who 
came in. The common priest, however, need 
not leave the house or tent on the approach of 
the death of one near of kin, but might remain 
and take part in the funeral and then regain 
his sacerdotal qualifications by subsequent puri- 
fication and sacrifice. The same regulation and 
permission is given by Ezekiel (** : 25), and that 
the permission, despite the absence of express 
mention in this chapter, included also the wife 
seems apparent from the fact that when Ezekiel 
on a special occasion was forbidden to mourn 
for his wife, it was noticeable enough to serve 
as a sign (Bzek. 24 : 16, 19). No making baldness 
on the head, no shaving of the corners of the 
beard, no cutting of the flesh was permitted, a 
regulation which was also given to the people 

at large (cf. 19 : 27, 28 ; Deut. 14 : 1). 



The purity of the priest's family connections 
(ver. 1) is so vital a concern, not only to himself 
but to the people, that these are directly ad- 
dressed, as if singly ("thou," ver. 8)^ and enjoined 
to hold him in reverence for the sake of his 
office. Because the sanctifying influence of re- 
ligion for the individual depended on its repre- 
sentatives being respected and reverenced, there- 
fore those conditions must exist which rendered 
this possible. Not only must the priest be holy 
to God, not only must there be an official recog- 
nition of the dignity of his office, but he must 
be holy unto thee, the common man He must, 
not only enforce an outward respect, he must 
command an inward respect and reverence by 
all that appeals to the social sense of propriety. 
The priesthood, therefore, was no irresponsible, 
divine- right institution, able to ignore the speech 
of people ; as in the first place we saw an obli- 
gation to God whose food the priest was set to 
offer, so now we see an obligation to the good 
opinion of the people. The daughter of a priest 
(ver. 9) who should wantonly prostitute herself 
must be punished, not only with death but with 
the marked indignity of subsequent burning. 
The meaning of ver. 4, being a chief man, 
or husband, among his people, is not cer- 
tainly known, some word having probably 
dropped out of the original text that is neces- 
sary to its clear understanding. 

10-15. By the chief priest. The regulations 
for the high priest upon whose head the anoint- 
ing oil had been poured, and who had filled his 
hand to put on the vestments, were stricter than 
for the ordinary priests. He is here called the 
priest who is chief among his brethren, an ex- 
pression peculiar to this passage. He was not 
to let the hair of his head go loose nor rend his 
clothes (ver. lo) ; he was not to go in to any dead 
body — not even that of his nearest relative — nor 
to go out of the sanctuary, i. e., perhaps, incur 
a ceremonial taint which would debar hira from 
constant fitness for duty. As to his domestic 



86 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXII. 



11 Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor 
defile himself for his father, or for his mother ; 

12 Neither shall he ?o out of the sanctuary, nor 
profane the sanctuary of his God ; for the crown of 
the anointing oil of his God is upon him : I a hi the 
Lord. 

13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity. 

14 A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or 
an harlot, these shall he not take : but he shall 
take a virgin of his own people to wife. 

15 Neither shall he profane his seed among his 
people : for I the Lord do sanctify him. 

16 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

17 Speak unto Aaron, saying. Whosoever he be of 
thy seed in their generations that hath any blem- 
ish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his 
God. 

IS For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, 
he shall not approach : a blind man, or a lame, or 
he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, 

19 Or a man that is brokenfooted, or broken- 
handed, 

20 Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a 
blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or 
hath his stones broken ; 

21 No man that hath a blemish of the seed of 
Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offer- 
ings of the Lord made by flre : he hath a blemish ; 
he shall not come nigh "to offer the bread of his 
God. 

22 He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the 
most holy, and of the holy. 

23 Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come 
nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish ; 
that he profane not my sanctuaries : for I the Lord 
do sanctify them. 

24 And Moses told it unto Aaron, and to his sons, 
and unto all the children of Israel. 



11 loose, nor rend his clothes ; neither shall he go 
in to any dead body, nor deflle himself for his 

12 father, or for his mother ; neither shall he go 
out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary 
of his God ; for the crown of the anointing oil of 

13 his God is upon him: I am the Lord. And he 
1-i shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or 

one divorced, or a profane woman, an harlot, 
these shall he not take : but a virgin of his own 

15 people shall he take to wife. And he shall not 
profane his seed among his people : for I am the 
Lord which sanctify him. 

16 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

17 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of 
thy seed throughout their generations that hath 
a blemish, let him not approach to offer the 

18 bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be 
that hath a blemish, he shall not approach : a 
blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, 

19 or any thing superfluous, or a man that is bro- 

20 kenfooted, or brokenhanded. or crookbackt, or a 
dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or is 
scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken ; 

21 no man of the seed of Aaron the priest, that 
hath a blemish, shall come nigh to offer the 
offerings of the Lord made by flre : he hath a 
blemish ; he shall not come iiigh to offer the 

22 bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his 
God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. 

23 Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor conie 
nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish ; 
that he profane not my sanctuaries: for 1 am 

24 the Lord which sanctify them. So Moses spake 
unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the 
children of Israel. 



CHAPTER XXII 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons', that they 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they 



relations, he was permitted to take for a wife 
only a virgin of his own people. This is under- 
stood by the LXX and Philo to mean only a 
member of the priestly family, but others ex- 
tend the meaning so as to include any one of 
pure Israelitish descent. Thus he was not to 
taint his posterity by a marriage not in keeping 
with his holy office. 

16-24. Conditions of bodily perfection to be 
satisfied by those discharging priestly duties. 
These blemishes are correctly named in the 
Revised version, with the exception, perhaps, 
of the "flat nose" of ver. 18, which probably 
means a mutilation of the nose or face. As in 
the first place there was indicated an amenability 
of the priest to the dignity of Jehovah, and in 
the second to the opinion of the j udicious among 
the people, so here there is indicated a care even 
for the thoughtless and superficial — those who 
form their impressions from the first glance, and 
might be hopelessly repelled by an initial aver- 
sion. While it is well for all to be schooled to 
the truth that character is a thing of the heart 
(cf. 1 Sam. 16 : 7), and that God's minister is not 
spiritually incapacitated by external awkward- 
ness or inelegance or even deformity, yet it is 



also well that public religious service should be 
embodied in an outward form which does not 
dissipate the unified religious impression or call 
the attention away from the main purpose to 
what is unpleasant or in any way particularly 
obtrusive. 

The priest with any of the infirmities named 
could not officiate publicly or approach the 
sanctuary in a sacerdotal capacity. He was 
permitted, however, to be supported by the 
offerings which were devoted to the sustenance 
of the priests, namely, the wave offerings, the 
first-fruits, the firstlings, tithes, and things laid 
under a ban (Num. is : 11-19, 26-29), those which are 
designated as most holy, as well as the holy gifts. 
But for those unfortunate men to appear in their 
disfigurement and imperfection as hierophants 
was to profane the sanctuary. 

The word sanctuaries (ver. 23) does not in- 
dicate a plurality of places of public worship, 
for the single sanctuary is presupposed in this 
Law of Holiness, but probably the various holy 
places of the sanctuary itself. 



Chap. 22. Two conditions foe par- 
taking OF THE SACKIFICIAL FOOD. 1-9. 



Ch. XXII.] 



LEVITICUS 



87 



separate themselves from the holy things of the 
children of Israel, and that they jprofane not my 
holy name in those things which, they hallow unto 
me : I am the Lord. 

3 Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed 
among your generations, that goeth unto the holy 
things, which the children of Israel hallow unto 
the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, that 
soul shall be cut off from my presence : I ain the 
Lord. 

4 What man soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper, 
or hath a running issue ; he shall not eat of the holy 
things, until he be clean. And whoso toucheth any 
thing that is unclean hy the dead, or a man whose 
seed goeth from him ; 

6 Or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing, 
whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of 
whom he may take uncleanness, whatsoever un- 
cleanness he hath ; 

6 The soul which hath touched any such shall be 
unclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy 
things, unless he wash his flesh with water. 

7 And when the sun is down, he shall be clean, 
and shall afterward eat of the holy things ; because 
it is his food. 

8 That which dieth of itself, or is torn withbeasts, 
he shall not eat to defile himself therewith: I am 
the Lord, 



separate themselves from the holy things of the 
children of Israel, which they hallow unto me, 
and that they profane not my holy name : I am 

3 the Lord, Say unto them. Whosoever he be of 
all your seed throughout yotir generations, that 
approacheth unto the holy things, which the 
children of Israel hallow unto the Lord, having 
his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut 

4 off from before me : I am the Lord. What man 
soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath 
an issue; he shall not eat of the holy things, 
until he be clean. And whoso toucheth any 
thing that is unclean by the dead, or a man 

5 whose seed goeth from him ; or whosoever touch- 
eth any creeping thing, whereby he may be 
made unclean, or a man of whom he may take 
uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he hath ; 

6 the soul which toucheth any such shall be un- 
clean until the even, and shall not eat of the 
holy things, unless he bathe his flesh in water. 

7 And when the sun is down, he shall be clean ; 
and afterward he shall eat of the holy things, 

8 because it is his bread. That which dieth of 
itself, or is torn of beasts, he shall not eat to 



1. Ceremonial purity. The general injunction 
is that the priests shall separate themselves 
from the holy things (ver. 2)^ i, e., shall feel 
and respect the difference between these hal- 
lowed things and common things. It is a caution 
against the danger to which priests are subject, 
that familiarity with holy things shall breed ir- 
reverence and carelessness. The holy things here 
dealt with are somewhat different from the dread 
sanctities which Nadab and Abihu suifered such 
a summary punishment for violating. They 
are rather the foods which the people have 
sanctified to God's service, and which have in a 
sense passed into domestic use by becoming a 
part of the priests' sustenance. The careless- 
ness into which the priest would be in danger of 
falling does not so much resemble the modern 
lineman's carelessness bred by familiarity with 
the deadly electric current as did that of Nadab 
and Abihu or Uzzah. It is rather the careless- 
ness which consists in ignoring the pious and 
tender feelings of the people who have sanctified 
the gifts, and subjecting them to the shock and 
grief of seeing the ofierings which have carried 
the tenderest feelings of their hearts put to un- 
worthy uses. There seems to be the conscious- 
ness of the worshiping people conveyed in the 
expression, those things which they hal- 
low unto me (ver. 2). it is noteworthy how 
strongly the amenability of the priest to the re- 
ligious or aesthetic feelings of the people comes out 
in these chapters. He must be holy unto thee, the 
common layman, according to the regulations 
of the last chapter (21 : 8), and here he must not 
outrage the layman's feelings by putting his 
hallowed gift to unhallowed or even lay use 



(ver. 10, seq.). A similar consideration for the 
pious imagination of the common layman re- 
garding the minister's family ought perhaps to 
characterize the temporal management of mod- 
ern pastors. The things which grateful wor- 
shipers have sanctified to God by giving to a 
loved pastor never to their minds become wholly 
secularized ; and the restive young minister who 
is fain to assert his manliness by being wholly 
independent of his flock in his domestic man- 
agement, and flaunting an unworthy use of their 
gifts before their eyes as a disciplinary lesson, 
may do the cause of religion an incalculable 
injury. The modern progressive Protestant 
notion of the pastor's being wholly secularized 
and indistinguishable from other people in his 
common life has much to recommend it, but it 
must wisely reckon with the tender religious 
feelings of the people as well as with the sanc- 
tities of the church. 

The command is first with regard to the hal- 
lowed things in general, which the priest is not 
even to approach (ver. 3) with his uncleanness 
upon him ; but the more specific application is 
to the holy offerings which were designated for 
the sustenance of the priests (see on 21 : 16-24). 
Although these after they had been waved or 
solemnly lifted became articles of everyday food, 
yet they never were to be regarded as exactly on 
a level with food that had not been so offered. 
The forms of uncleanness which debarred from 
partaking of the holy food are here recapitulated 
from other parts of the law. The penalty for 
the priest who approached the holy things with 
his uncleanness upon him was exclusion from 
the sanctuary (ver. 3) ; and for disregard of 



88 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXII. 



9 They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest 
they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they pro- 
fane it : I the Lord do sanctify them. 

10 There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing : 
a sojourner of the priest, or an hired, servant, shall 
not eat of the holy thing, 

11 But if the priest buy any soul with his money, 
he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house : 
they shall eat of his meat. 

12 If the priest's daughter also be maiTied unto a 
stranger, she may not eat of an offering of the holy 
things. 

13 But if the priest's daughter be a widow, or 
divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto 
her father's house, as iu her youth, she shall eat of 
her father's meat : but there shall no stranger eat 
thereof. 

14 And if a man eat of the holy thing tmwit- 
tingly, then he shall put the fifth part thereof unto 
it, and shall give it unto the priest with the holy 
thing. 

15 And they shall not profane the holy things of 
the children of Israel, which they offer unto the 
Lord ; 

16 Or suffer them to bear the iniquity of trespass, 
when they eat their holy things : for I the Lord do 
sanctify them. 

17 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

18 Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto 
all the children of Israel, and say unto them. What- 
soever he he of the house of Israel, or of the stran- 
gers in Israel, that will offer his oblation for all his 
vows, and for all his freewill offerings, which they 
wiL offer unto the Lord for a burnt offering ; 

19 Ye shall offer at your own will a male without 
blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goat-s. 

20 But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye 
not offer : for it shall not be acceptable for you. 

21 And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace 
offerings unto the Lord to accomplish his vow, or a 
freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be per- 
fect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish 
therein. 



9 defile himself therewith : I am the Lord. They 
shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear 
sin for it, and die therein, if they profane it: I 

10 am the Lord which sanctify them. There shall 
no stranger eat of the holy thing : a sojourner 
of the priest's, or an hired servant, shall not eat 

11 of the holy thing. But if a priest buy any soul, 
the purchase of his money, he shall eat of it ; 
and such as are born in his house, they shall eat 

12 of his bread. And if a priest's daughter be mar- 
ried unto a stranger, she shall not eat of the 

13 heave offering of the holy things. But if a 
priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and 
have no child, and is returned unto her father's 
house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her 
father's bread : but there shall no stranger eat 

14 thereof. And if a man eat of the holy thing 
unwittingly, then he shall put the fifth part 
thereof unto it, and shall give unto the priest the 

15 holy thing. And they shall not profane the 
holy things of the children of Israel, which they 

16 offer unto the Lord ; and so cause them to bear 
the iniquity that bringeth guilt, when they eat 
their holy 'things : for I am the Lord which 
sanctify them. 

17 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

18 Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all 
the children of Israel, and say unto them, Who- 
soever he be of the house of Israel, or of the 
strangers in Israel, that offereth his oblation, 
whether it be any of their vows, or any of their 
freewill offerings, which they offer unto the Lord 

19 for a burnt offering ; that ye may be accepted, 
ye shall offer a male without blemish, of the 

20 beeves, of" the sheep, or of the goats. But what- 
soever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: 

21 for it shall not be acceptable for you. And who- 
soever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto 
the Lord to accomplish a vow, or for a freewill 
offering, of the herd or of the flock, it shall be 
perfect to be accepted ; there shall be no blemish. 



Jehovali's ordinances there was even peril of 

death, (^er. 9 ; cf. Esod. 2S : 35 : Lev. 8 : 35 ; Nam. 18 : 32). 

" When the Israelite offended in a similar man- 
ner by eating of the peace offering with his nn- 
cleanness upon him, he was to be cut off from 
amongst his people " (f : 20). 

10-16. 2. 3IemhersMp in a priest^ s family. 
The stranger here is not a foreigner, but any 
one not of the family of Aaron, a layman. If 
a layman ate unwittingly he was to restore it 
with the addition of a fifth (ver. u), according 
to the law of the guilt offering (5 : 14-16). The 
sense of ver. 15, 16, which are somewhat ob- 
scure in the original, apj)ears to be that the 
priests are not to profane the holy things, in 
which the tenderest feelings of the offerer find 
expression, by allowing a disorderly sharing of 
these by laymen, thus causing them, i. e., these 
unqualified partakers, to bear the iniquity that 
bringeth guilt when they eat their holy things. 
The force of the negative at the beginning of 
the fifteenth verse passes over so as also to 
include the verb in the sixteenth verse. 

17-25. Animals offered in sacrifices to be 
free fror/i imperfections. Ye shall offer at 
your own will, etc., rather, that ye may be 



accepted, etc., as in E. Y. The admonition 
against offering animals with a blemish (-rer. 20) 
is repeated in other places in the law (see Dent. 
15 : 21 ; 17 : i)j and MalacM inveighs against the 
sin as a grievous and notorious practice in his 
day (see Mai. 1 : 8, 13, 14), The principle at the 
basis of this forbidding of imperfect offerings to 
Jehovah is that God is worthy of nothing short 
of our best, but this principle is something 
deeper than a humanly formulated theistic doc- 
trine. It is a trait of human nature. Eeligious 
feeling is among the most tender and most easily 
outraged instincts of human nature, because it 
is one of the highest The same is true of 
aesthetic feeling. Religion and fine art both 
seek to propitiate our sense for the perfect. 
While mere mechanical art may be satisfied 
with a utility which serves a limited purpose, 
the art which aims at beauty or truth for its 
own sake can tolerate nothing short of the best 
in the artist's power. While the tribute or price 
which discharges a limited human obligation 
may count itself sufiicient when a measurable 
equity has been satisfied, the gift which relig- 
ious feeling renders to the Infinite must issue 
from the top of the offerer's powers. It is not a 



Ch. XXIII.] 



LEVITICUS 



89 



22 Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, 
or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto 
the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them upon 
the altar unto the Lord. 

23 Either a bullock or a lamb that hath any thing 
superfluous or lacking in his parts, that mayest thou 
offer /or a freewill offering ; but for a vow it shall 
not be accepted. 

24 Ye shall not offer unto the Lord that which is 
bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut ; neither 
shall ye make any offering thereof in your land. 

25 Neither from a stranger's hand shall ye offer 
the bread of your God of any of these ; because 
their corruption is in them, and blemishes be in 
them : they shall not be accepted for you. 

26 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

27 When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought 
forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam ; 
and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall 
be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the 
Lord. 

28 And whether it he cow or ewe, ye shall not kill 
it and her young both in one day. 

29 And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanks- 
giving unto the Lord, offer it at your own will. 

30 On the same day it shall be eaten up ; ye shall 
leave none of it until the morrow : I am the Lord. 

31 Therefore shall ye keep my commandments, 
and do them : I am the Lord. 

32 Neither shall ye profane my holy name ; but I 
will be hallowed among the children of Israel : I 
am the Lord which hallow you, 

33 That brought you out of the land of Egypt, to 
be your God : I am the Lord. 



22 therein. Blind, or broken, or maimed, or hav- 
ing a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not 
offer these unto the Lord, nor make an offering 
by fire of them upon the altar unto the Lord. 

23 Either a bullock or a lamb that hath any thing 
superfluous or lacking in his parts, that mayest 
thou offer for a freewill offering ; but for a vow 

24 it shall not be accepted. That which hath its 
stones bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut, ye 
shall not offer unto the Lord ; neither shall ye 

25 do thus in your land. Neither from the hand of 
a foreigner shall ye offer the bread of your God 
of any of these ; because their corruption is in 
them, there is a blemish in them : they shall not 
be accepted for you. 

26 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

27 When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought 
forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam ; 
and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall 
be accepted for the oblation of an offering made 

28 by fire unto the Lord. And whether it be cow 
or ewe, ye shall not kill it and her young both 

29 in one day. And when ye sacrifice a sacrifice of 
thanksgiving unto the Lord, ye shall sacrifice it 

80 that ye may be accepted. On the same day it 
shall be eaten ; ye shall leave none of it until 

31 the morning : I am the Lord. Therefore shall ye 
keep my commandments, and do them: I am 

32 the Lord. And ye shall not profane my holy 
name ; but I will be hallowed among the chil- 
dren of Israel : I am the Lord which hallow you, 

33 that brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be 
your God : I am the Lord. 



utility, it is a yearning expression, and what- 
ever is palpably and purposely imperfect out- 
rages religious feeling. The offer of what is 
imperfect is the expression of the spirit of mer- 
cantilism or barter — a disposition which reduces 
religion from the spiritual to the conventional 
and art from the ideal to the utilitarian. 

For a freewill offering (ver. as) an animal with 
a limb too large or too small might be accepted, 
but an obligation assumed by a solemn vow could 
not be so easily discharged, as any performance 
short of perfect would involve the element of 
bad faith. The reference of all the items in 
ver. 24 is to different modes of castration, all of 
which were practised among the ancients. The 
last clause in the verse (see R. V.) is understood 
by Josephus and the rabbins to forbid the prac- 
tice of castration entirely (see Josephus, " Ant.," 
IV., 8 : 40) ; and the prohibition of such a per- 
version of God's creation comports well with 
such legislation as that found in 19 : 19. Driver, 
however, translates, " Nor shall you sacrifice 
such animals in your land," and maintains that 
Josephus' understanding involves a very harsh 
construction of the Hebrew. 

In ver. 25 the stranger, literally, son of the 
unknoivn, is not simply the resident foreigner, 
but, as the rabbins hold, any one dwelling in 
another land and desiring to honor Israel's God. 

26-33. Three special injunctions respecting 
sacrifices, with concluding exhortation. These 
three injunctions are : (1) that the young of the 



herd or the flock are not eligible for sacrifice 
until they are a week old (cf. Exod. 22 : so) ; (2) 
that the mother-animal and its young shall not 
be killed the same day — a making sacred of the 
relation between parent and offspring quite in 

the spirit of Exod. 23 : 19 (cf. Exod. 34 : 26 ; Deut. u : 

21) and Deut. 22 : 6, 7; (3) that the sacrifice of 
thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that 
it is killed, which is a repetition for the praise 
offering of the command already given in regard 
to the peace offering (see 7 .- 15 ; 19 : 5, 6). 

The solemn exhortation which forms the con- 
clusion to the whole chapter may be compared 
with the conclusion of chap. 18 (ver. 29, so) and 
19 (ver. zi). The injunction against profaning 
the name of Jehovah is paralleled in ver. 9; 
10 : 3 ; 11 : 44, 45 ; 18 : 21 ; 19 : 12. 



Chap. 23. A calendar of saceed sea- 
sons. This chapter does not give a complete 
calendar of feasts, but only a list of those stated 
days and periods of the year on which " holy 
convocations," or solemn meetings were ap- 
pointed to be held. Of the recurring regula- 
tions concerning the festivals which are found 
in the various codes of the Pentateuch, this 
chapter and Num. 28, 29 deal most minutely 
with the details of their observance ; the stress 
in this chapter being chiefly on the part to be 
taken in them by the people, while Num. 28, 29 
regulates the public sacrifices by which they 
are to be marked. 



90 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXIII. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye 
shall proclaim to he holy convocations, even these 
are my feasts. 

3 Six days shall work be done : but the seventh 
day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation ; ye 
shall do no work therein : it is the sabbath of the 
Lord in all your dwellings. 

4 These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy con- 
vocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. 

5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even 
is the Lord's passover. 

6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is 
the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord : seven 
days ye must eat unleavened bread. 

7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convoca- 
tion : ye shall do no servile work therein. 

8 But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto 
the Lord seven days : in the seventh day is an holy 
convocation : ye shall do no servile work therein. 

9 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say 
unto them. When ye be come into the land which 
I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, 
then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your 
harvest unto the priest : 

11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, 
to be accepted for you : on the morrow after the 
sabbath the priest shall wave it. 

12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the 
sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year 
for a burnt offering unto the Lord. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, the set feasts of the Lord, which ye shall 
proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are 

3 my set feasts. Six days shall work be done : but 
on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, 
an holy convocation ; ye shall do no manner of 
work : it is a sabbath unto the Lord in all your 
dwellings. 

4 These are the set feasts of the Lord, even holy 
convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their 

5 appointed season. In the first month, on the 
fourteenth day of the month at even, is the 

6 Lord's passover. And on the fifteenth day of 
the same month is the feast of unleavened bread 
unto the Lord : seven days ye shall eat unleav- 

7 ened bread. In the first day ye shall have an 
holy convocation : ye shall do no servile work. 

8 But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto 
the Lord seven days : in the seventh day is an 
holy convocation ; ye shall do no servile work. 

9 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them. When ye be come Into the land which I 
give unto you, and shall reap the harvest there- 
of, then ye shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits 

11 of your harvest unto the priest : and he shall 
wave the sheaf before the Lord, tcube accepted 
for you : on the morrow after the sabbath the 

12 priest shall wave it. And in the day when ye 
wave the sheaf, ye shall offer a he-larnb without 
blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto 



1-3. The word rendered " feasts," or in R. V. 
** set feasts," is the plural of the word "IJ^ID, 
mded meaning an appointed time. It is a 
wider term than jn, chag, "feast," or rather 
"pilgrimage," which is used to designate the 
three pilgrimage feasts, Mazzoth or Unleavened 
Bread, Weeks or Pentecost, and Ingathering or 
Booths, at which all males were to make a 
pilgrimage to the sanctuary (see Exod. 23 : u-17). 
The word mo'ed on the other hand covers all 
appointed seasons. The appointed times of Je- 
hovah which ye shall proclaim as holy convoca- 
tions, these are my appointed times. The mean- 
ing of "holy convocation" is not a general 
assembling of the nation at the central sanctuary 
— ^for this was required only at the three pilgrim- 
age feasts — but an occasion of sabbath rest for all 
the people, which probably owed its name to the 
gatherings for religious edification which in later 
times were held in every town and village in the 
Holy Land. The typical and most frequently 
recurring " holy convocation " was the weekly 
Sabbath, in which no manner of work was to 
be done. 

4-8. Passover and Mazzoth. In ver. 4 occurs 
a new title introducing the yearly festivals. The 
Passover is mentioned only as introductory to 
the seven-day Mazzoth feast which occurs in 
immediate connection with it, and this latter 
principally for its first and seventh days which 
were holy convocations. The weekly Sabbath 



and the Day of Atonement (ver. 3, 30) were marked 
by the greatest sabbatic strictness, no manner of 
work being permitted on them, not even the 
kindling of a fire for cooking (Exod. 35 : 2, 3) . On 
the holy convocation connected with the other 
festivals only servile work, lit., "work of 
labor," i. e., work that belongs to one's worldly 
calling, was prohibited (see ver. 7, s, 21, 25, 35, 36). 
In the prohibition of work on the first and 
seventh days of Mazzoth in Exod. 12 : 16, ex- 
ception is especially made of "that which every 
man must eat." For the more detailed direc- 
tions for the celebration of Mazzoth see Exod. 
12 : 15-20 ; and for the sacrifices appointed for 
that festival see Num. 28 : 19-24. 

9-14. The first sheaf of the harvest. The 
injunction of this section falls outside the scope 
of the calendar, as fixed by the title ; it relates 
to an ofiering to be made on a day for which no 
convocation is prescribed. In its present con- 
nection, moreover there is nothing to fix the day 
that is meant. It says (^er. 11) the m orro w after 
the sabbath, without any indication as to what 
sabbath is intended. This seems to indicate that 
the passage no longer stands in its original con- 
nection. It is generally marked by critics, along 
with ver. 15-20, 22, as belonging to the Law of 
Holiness, while the most of the chapter has the 
characteristics of P. 

This is the only place in the Pentateuch where 
the offering of the first sheaf is mentioned. In 



Ch. XXIII.] 



LEVITICUS 



91 



13 And the meat offering thereof shall be two 
tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offer- 
ing made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour : 
and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the 
fourth part of an hin. 

14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched 
corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that 
ye have brought an offering unto your God : it shall 
be a statute for ever throughout your generations in 
all your dwellings. 

15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow 
after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the 
sheaf of the wave offering ; seven sabbaths shall 
be complete : 

16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sab- 
bath shall ye number fifty days ; and ye shall offer 
a new meat offering unto the Lord. 

17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two 
wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of 
fine flour ; they shall be baken with leaven ; they 
are the firstfruits unto the Lord. 

18 And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs 
without blemish of the first year, and one young 
bullock, and two rams ; they shall be for a burnt 
offering unto the Lord, with their meat offering, 
and their drink offerings, even an offering made by 
fire, of sweet savour unto the Lord. 

19 Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for 
a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a 
sacrifice of peace offerings. 

20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread 
of the firstfruits /or a wave offering before the Lord, 
with the two lambs : they shall be holy to the Lord 
for the priest. 

21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, 
that it may be an holy convocation unto you : ye 
shall do no servile work therein : it shall be a statute 



13 the Lord. And the meal offering thereof shall 
be two tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour min- 
gled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the 
Lord for a sweet savour : and the drink offering 
thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an 

14 hin. And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched 
corn, nor fresh ears, until this selfsame day, until 
ye have brought the oblation of your God : it is a 
statute for ever throughout your generations in 
all your dwellings. 

15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow 
after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought 
the sheaf of the wave offering ; seven sabbaths 

16 shall there be complete : even unto the morrow 
after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty 
days ; and ye shall offer a new meal offering 

17 unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your 
habitations two wave loaves of two tenth parts 
of an ephah : they shall be of fine flour, they 
shall be baken with leaven, for firstfruits unto 

18 the Lord. And ye shall present with the bread 
seven lambs without blemish of the first year, 
and one young bullock, and two rams : they 
shall be a burnt offering unto the Lord, with 
their meal offering, and their drink offerings, 
even an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour 

19 unto the Lord. And ye shall offer one he-goat 
for a sin offering, and two he-lambs of the first 

20 year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the 
j)riest shall wave them with the bread of the 
firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lord, 
with the two lambs : they shall be holy to the 

21 Lord for the priest. And ye shall make procla- 
mation on the selfsame day ; there shall be an 
holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no 



Josh. 5 : 11 there is an account of the people's 
beginning to eat of the produce of the land on 
the day after the Passover, which seems to be an 
allusion to the prohibition in ver. 14. The offering 
which was waved was probably a sheaf of barley, 
the grain which was first ripe, while the first 
fruits of the wheat harvest were offered later in 
the loaves of Pentecost (see ver. 17) . The " morrow 
after the sabbath " is traditionally understood to 
be the day after the first day of Mazzoth, i. e., the 
si?:teenth of Nisan — the first day of the feast being 
a " sabbath " in the sense of being a day of holy 
convocation on which no servile work was 
allowed. The Day of Atonement is similarly 
called a sabbath (see ver. 3a). This, however, is 
not the usual sense of the term sabbath ; so that 
some have thought that the sabbath meant was 
the ordinary weekly Sabbath that falls during 
the seven days of Mazzoth. The meal offering 
of two tenth-parts of an ephah of fine flour (ver. 
13) has been observed to be twice as large as the 
usual meal offering allotted to a lamb {see Exod. 29 : 
40), a greater liberality befitting a harvest feast. 
15-32. The feast of Weeks. This feast is 
brought into close connection with the preced- 
ing, or offering of the sheaf, as marking the 
completion of the harvest which formally com- 
menced with that ceremonial. The later Jews 
called it TTIVJI^, 'atzereth, or closing festival (cf. 
ver. 36, R. v., Margin). The time of its observance 



depends strictly on that " morrow after the sab- 
bath," which is the starting-point from which 
the fifty days are reckoned. In the Apocrypha 
(Tobit 2 : 1 ; 2 Mace. 12 : 32) and the Ncw Testament 

(Acts 2:1; 20 : 16 ; 1 Cor. 16 : 8) the fsstival IS Called 

Pentecost, from the Greek word meaning the fif- 
tieth. 15. Seven sabbaths means seven weeks, 
the term sabbath being often used in the New Tes- 
tament as well as the Old by simple metonymy for 
week. 17. Out of your habitations does not 
mean that each householder should bring two 
loaves to the priests, which would certainly over- 
whelm them with bread, but that the congrega- 
tion should bring to the feast such loaves as are 
used in their " habitations," i. e., in common life 
(therefore leavened), not sacred bread baked for 
the purpose. The sacrifices named in ver. 18, 
19 differ from those prescribed in Num. 28 : 26, 
27 in one particular. In that place two young 
bulls and one ram are commanded, instead of 
one young bull and two rams, as here. Some 
commentators think that the whole middle part 
of ver. 18, from the word bread to and including 
drink offerings, is interpolated, with the acci- 
dental change, from the passage in Numbers. 
The Jewish authorities think that the sacrifices 
prescribed in Numbers are additional to these. 
On waving (ver. 20) see note on 7 : 28-34. Liv- 
ing creatures were waved, it is said, by being 
led to and fro before the sanctuary in a pre- 



92 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXIII. 



for ever in all your dwellings throughout your 
generations. 

22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, 
thou Shalt not make clean riddance of the corners 
of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou 
gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt 
leave thera unto the poor, and to the stranger : I 
am the Lord your God. 

23 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In 
the seventh month, in the first day of the month, 
shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of 
trumpets, an holy convocation. 

25 Ye shall do no servile work therein : but ye 
shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. 

26 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month 
there shall be a day of atonement : it shall be an holy 
convocation unto you ; and ye shall afflict your 
souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the 
Lord. 

28 And ye shall do no work in that same day : for 
it is a day'of atonement, to make an atonement for 
you before the Lord your God. 

29 For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be 
afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from 
among his people. 

80 And whatsoever soul it be thatdoeth any work 
in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from 
among his people. 

31 Ye shall do no manner of work : it shall be a 
statute for ever throughout your generations in all 
your dwellings. 

32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye 
shall afflict your souls : in the ninth day of the 
month at even, from even unto even, shall ye cele- 
brate your sabbath. 

33 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The 
fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the 
feast of tabernacles /or seven days unto the Lord. 

35 On the first day shall be an holy convocation : 
ye shall do no servile work therein. 

36 Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by 
fire unto the Lord : on the eighth day shall be an 
holy convocation unto you ; and ye shall offer an 
offering made by fire unto the Lord : it ^s a solemn 
assembly ; and ye shall do no servile work therein. 



scribed way. This pentecost was one of the 
three D'Jn, chaggim, or pilgrimage feasts, and 
it was a day of holy convocation (ver. 21). The 
injunction in ver. 22, which repeats the law in 
19 : 9, 10, is appropriately inserted in connec- 
tion with a festival celebrating the completion 
of harvest. 

23-25. The New Year. This festival is 
named only here and in Num. 29 : 1. Accord- 
ing to uniform tradition this first day of the 
seventh month is the beginning of the civil year 
in use before the Exodus. The seventh month, 
that most sacred of months, containing the Day 
of Atonement and the feast of Booths, was fit- 
tingly ushered in in this exceptional way. As 
the months were lunar, there was a new moon 
observance at the beginning of each month, but 
this new moon festival was of unique impor- 
tance. The trumpet is not mentioned in the 
Hebrew text of either this place or Num. 29 : 1, 
the word translated "blowing of trumpets" 
meaning literally shouting; but there is no 
reason to doubt the tradition that trumpet- 



servile work : it is a statute for ever in all your 
dwellings throughout your generations. 

22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, 
thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy 
field, neither shalt thou gather the gleaning of 
thy harvest : thou shalt leave them for the poor, 
and for the stranger : I am the Lord your God. 

23 And the Lord spake unto Mos'es, saying, 

24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the 
seventh month, in the first day of the month, 
shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial of 

25 blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye 
shall do no servile work ; and ye shall offer an 
offering made by fire unto the Lord. 

26 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

27 Howbeit on the tenth day of this seventh month 
is the day of atonement : it shall be an holy con- 
vocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls ; 
and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto 

28 the Lord. And ye shall do no manner of work 
in that same day : for it is a day of atonement, 
to make atonement for you before the Lord your 

29 God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not 
be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off 

30 from his people. And whatsoever soul it be that 
doeth any manner of work in that same day, 
that soul will I destroy from among his people. 

31 Ye shall do no manner of work : it is a statute 
for ever throughout your generations in all your 

32 dwellings. It shall "be unto you a sabbath of 
solemn rest, and ye shall afflict your souls : in 
the ninth day of the month at even, from even 
unto even, shall ye keep your sabbath. 

33 And the Lord" spake unto Moses, saying, 

34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, On 
the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the 
feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. 

35 On the first day shall be an holy convocation : 

36 ye shall do no servile work. Seven days ye 
shall offer an offering made by fire unto the 
Lord : on the eighth day shall be an holy con- 
vocation unto you ; and ye shall offer an offer- 
ing made by fire unto the Lord : it is a solemn 
assembly ; ye shall do no servile work. 



blowing was the characteristic method of ob- 
servance. The day is called, not strictly a 
sabbath (ver. 24), but priSti', shabbathon, or 
"solemn rest" (see E. V.) ; and only servile 
work is prohibited. 

26-32. The Bay of Atonement. This day 
was to be kept with the greatest of Sabbath 
strictness. The matter on which stress is laid 
here is the duty of "afflicting the soul," and of 
abstaining from work from the ninth evening 
to the tenth. The manner of observing the day 
is prescribed in chap. 16. 

33-38. The feast of Booths. The real feast 
of Booths lasted seven days, from the fifteenth 
of the month. It was one of the feasts called by 
the name JlTI, chag, or pilgrimage. The first 
day was a holy convocation in which no " work 
of labor," or servile work, was allowed. After 
the festival had been kept for seven days with 
the remarkable series of sacrifices described in 
Num. 29 : 12-34, an eighth day of holy convoca- 
tion served as a supplemental day, constituting 
a solemn close to the whole series of the year's 



Ch. XXIII.] 



LEVITICUS 



03 



37 These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye 
shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an 
offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt oft'er- 
ing, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink 
offerings, every thing upon his day : 

38 Beside the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside 
your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all 
your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the Lord. 

39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, 
when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye 
shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days : on the 
first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day 
shall be a sabbath. 



87 These are the set feasts of the Lord, which ye 
shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer 
an offering made by fire 'unto the Lord, a burnt 
offering, and a meal offering, a sacrifice, and 

38 drink offerings, each on its own day : beside the 
sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and 
beside all your vows, and beside all your free- 
will offerings, which ye give unto the Lord. 

39 Howbeit on the fifteenth day of the seventh 
mionth, when ye have gathered in the fruits of 
the land, ye shall keep the feast of the Lord 
seven days : on the first day shall be a solemn 
rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn 



feasts. This was characterized as an ri'lVJ!., 
'atzereth, or solemn assembly (ver. 36), a term so 
often used of the gathering at the last day of the 

feast (see Num. 29 : 35 ; 2 Chron. 7:9; Neh. 8 : 18), being 

also applied to the last day of Mazzoth (see cem. 
16 : 8) that it has been sometimes translated closing 
festival (see R. V., Margin). Its use, however, 
to denote an assembly of men (Jer. 9 : 2), espe- 
cially an assembly gathered for a religious pur- 
pose (2 Kings 10 : 20 ; Amos 5 : 2l), is dscisive against 

this meaning. The sacrifices on this day were 
somewhat less extensive than on the other days 
of the feast (see Num. 29 : 35-38). From the text of 

1 Kings 8 : 65, 66 it appears that Solomon kept 
the feast for only seven days, dismissing the 
people on the eighth day. In post-exilic times, 
however, the supernumerary day was observed, 
with express reference to the law here (see Neh. 
8 : 18) : and even Solomon's practice, already re- 
ferred to, is made by an alteration of the text in 

2 Chron. 7 : 9 to conform to this command. 
Ver. 37, 38 are a subscription corresponding 

to the title, ver. 2, 4, and by apparently closing 
the chapter make ver. 39-44 supplementary in 
their nature. The sacrifices to be ofiered on 
these days of holy convocation are to be stated 
sacrifices, in addition to those prescribed for the 
weekly Sabbath (see Num. 28 : 9, lo), and also to the 
gifts and vows and freewill offerings which the 
various promptings of religious feeling would 
lead men to bring. 

39-'44. Additional directions for the feast 
of Booths. These supplementary verses have 
more distinctly the characteristics of the Law 
of Holiness, while the greater part of the pre- 
ceding portions of the chapter are in the style 
of P. It is characteristic of the Law of Holi- 
ness to regulate the time of the festivals by refer- 
ence to the land and to agriculture, while P. has 
more of a tendency to make these festivals occa- 
sions fixed arbitrarily for worship. In this 
respect the Law of Holiness still preserves the 
traditions of the earlier legislation of the Book 
of the Covenant and Deuteronomy according to 
which two out of the only three festivals recog- 
nized (Exod. 23 : 14 ; 34 : 23 ; Deut. 16) were harvCSt 



feasts. " In the Priests' Law (Lev. 23 ; Num. 28, 29) 
the Passover precedes the seven days of Un- 
leavened Bread as an independent feast, and, 
together with them, is regarded as commemo- 
rating nothing but the divine protection expe- 
rienced by the people when they went out of 
Egypt. The autumn festival also lasts eight 
days, and is devoted to the memory of the dwell- 
ing in booths during the journey through the 
desert. The only one which has no theocratic 
foundation in the Old Testament is the feast of 
Weeks (Pentecost). There are the following 
new feasts : the day of Memorial-Blowing on the 
first of the seventh month, and the great Day 
of Atonement on the tenth of the same month. 
The old feasts, like these new ones, are now pre- 
cisely dated (Passover on the fourteenth of the 
first month ; Tabernacles from the fifteenth to the 
twenty-second of the seventh month), whereas in 
earlier times each was proclaimed according to 
the state of the harvest" (Kautzsch). The 
present chapter, as a final redaction, represents 
in some places the ultimate exactness of the 
priestly legislators, and in some the somewhat 
earlier sentiment of the Law of Holiness. " The 
centralization of worship at Jerusalem would 
tend to greater regularity in fixing the time of 
the several feasts ; and this tendency would be 
carried still further when the close connection 
between the life of the people and the operations 
of agriculture had been broken. In the Law of 
Holiness, as is clear from many passages, the old 
connection was still felt; the priestly prophet 
Ezekiel appoints fixed days for the feasts. In 
the present chapter one legislator represents the 
tradition current among the people ; the other 
shows the systematization of worship and ob- 
servance which was carried on in priestly 
circles" (Deivek). 

39. When ye have gathered in the fruit 
of the land. In Exodus (23:i6; 34:22) this 
feast is called the feast of Ingathering at the 
year's end. In the Holy Land the whole of the 
harvest would be completed about the first of 
October. The 'atzereth, or supplemental eighth 
day of the feast, is mentioned in ver, 39, but it 



94 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXIV. 



40 And ye shall take you on the first day the 
boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and 
the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook ; 
and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven 
days. 

41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord 
seven days in the year. It shall he a statute for ever 
in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the 
seventh month, 

42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days ; all that 
are Israelites born shall dwell in booths : 

43 That your generations may know that I made 
the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I 
brought them out of the land of Egypt : I am the 
Lord your God. 

44 And Moses declared unto the children of Israel 
the feasts of the Lord. 



40 rest. And ye sliall take you on the first day the 
fruit of goodly trees, braucnes of palm trees, and 
boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook ; 
and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God 

41 seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto 
the Lord 'seven days in the year : it Is a statute 
for ever in your generations : ye shall keep it in 

42 the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths 
seven days ; all that are homeborn in Israel 

43 shall dwell in booths : that your generations may 
knov7 that I made the children of Israel to dwell 
in booths, when I brought them out of the land 

44 of Egypt : I am the Lord your God. And Moses 
declared unto the children of Israel the set feasts 
of the Lord. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Command the children of Israel, that they bring 
unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to 
cause the lamps to burn continually. 

3 Without the vail of the testimony, in the taber- 
nacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from 
the evening unto the morning before the Lord con- 
tinually : it shall be a statute for ever in your gene- 
rations. 

4 He shall order the lamps upon the pure candle- 
stick before the Lord continually. 

5 And thou shalt take tine flour, and bake twelve 
cakes thereof : two tenth deals shall be in one cake. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, sajdng, 

2 Command the children of Israel, that they 
bring unto thee pure olive oil beaten for the 
light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. 

3 Without the veil of the testimony, in the tent of 
meeting, shall Aaron order it from evening to 
morning before the Lord continually : it shall 
be a statute for ever throughout your genera- 

4 tlons. He shall order the lamps upon the pure 
candlestick before the Lord continually. 

5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake 
twelve cakes thereof: two tenth parts of an 



seems to be ignored in the remaining verses. 
The festival does not appear to have been ob- 
served by dwelling in booths from the first en- 
trance into the Holy Land until after the exile ; 
but its observance in Jerusalem after the return 
is minutely described in Neh. 8 : 14-18. Booths 
were temporary huts of branches such as were 
used by herdsmen for cattle. It is to be noted 
that in the history the kind of habitation used 
by the children of Israel in the wilderness is 
never called (13 D, sukkah, booth, but vH^?, 
'ohel, tent of cloth or skin. No doubt, however, 
in their forty years' wandering, when scattered 
far from the immediate vicinity of the sanctuary 
seeking sustenance for their cattle, the people 
frequently used booths. But the law is for- 
mulated here, not from the standpoint of the 
sojourn at Sinai, but from that of the later time, 
when the wandering in the wilderness of Sin 
was a historic memory. While the command 
to observe the feast seems in ver. 42 to include 
only the home-born, yet its joys were according 
to Deuteronomy to extend to foreigners, perhaps 

as their guests (see Dent. 16 : u). 



Chap. 24. Miscellaneous Regulations. 
1-4. 0)1 the lamps in the tabernacle. This 
is an almost verbatim repetition of directions 
given in Exod. 27 : 20, 21. The pure candle- 
stick is described in Exod. 25 : 31-39; and 
the execution by Aaron of the command is re- 
corded in Num. 8 : 1-4. The directions both 



here and in Exodus seem to treat the main- 
tenance of the light as a popular ofiering, as the 
command is issued to the congregation, and 
stress is laid on the purity and choiceness of the 
material which the people are to supply. It is 
noteworthy that in the vision of Zechariah (zech. 
4), which is evidently the product of the pro- 
phetic mind making a homiletic use of this 
piece of tabernacle furniture, nearly all the in- 
terest turns on the supply of oil. Whatever 
of divine illumination may be typified by the 
perpetual burning of a light before Jehovah, it 
is an illumination for which the people are spe- 
cially made responsible. It is a phenomenon 
in the temple which does not present itself to the 
worshiper as a light from an unknown source 
supposedly supernatural, but a light which re- 
sults from the priestly manipulation of his own 
gifts. The continual illumination is therefore 
an act of worship — the people's ojQfering of light 
to Jehovah. It expresses perhaps the perpetual 
watchfulness and intelligence which belong to 
true religion, just as the various sacrifices and 
minchahs express the perpetual outgo of devo- 
tion and friendship, or the special emotion of 
penitence, which characterizes religion from 
other points of view. 

5-9. On the shewbread. The shewbread is 
mentioned in various places ( Exod. 25 : so ; 35 : i3 ; 
39 : 36 ; 2 Chron. 13 : 11, etc. ) , but it is Only here that 
its preparation and treatment are expressly de- 
scribed. Its distinctive name, the bread of the 



Ch. XXIV.] 



LEVITICUS 



95 



6 And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a 
row, upon the pure table before the Lord. 

7 And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon 
each row, that it may be on the bread for a memo- 
rial, even an offeriug'made by lire unto the Lord. 

8 Every sabbath he shall set it in order before 
the Lord continually, being taken from the children 
of Israel by an everlasting covenant. 

9 And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they 
shall eat it in the holy place : for it is most holy 
unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire 
by a perpetual statute. 

10 And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose 
father was an Egyptian, went out among the chil- 
dren of Israel : and this son of the Israelitish 
woman and a man of Israel strove together in the 
camp; 

11 And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed 
the name of the Lord, and cursed. And they 
brought him unto Moses : (and hie mother's name 
was Sheloraith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe 
of Dan :) 

12 And they put him in ward, that the mind of 
the Lord might be shewed them. 

13 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

14 Bring forth him that hath cursed without the 
camp ; and let all that heard him lay their hands 
upon his head, and let all the congregation stone 
him. 

15 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Is- 
rael, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear 
his sin. 

16 And he that blasphemeth the name of the 
Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the 
congregation shall certainly stone him : as w^ell 
the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when 
he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put 
to death. 



6 eyhah shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set 
them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure 

7 table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure 
irankincense upon each row, that it may be to 
the bread for a memorial, even an offering made 

8 by fire unto the Lord. Every sabbath day he 
shall set it in order before the Lord continually; 
it is on the behalf of the children of Israel, an 

9 everlasting covenant. And it shall be for Aaron 
and his sons ; and they shall eat it in a holy 
place : for it is most holy unto him of the offer- 
ings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual 
statute. 

10 And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose 
father was an Egyptian, went out among the 
children of Israel : and the son of the Israel- 
itish woman and a man of Israel strove together 

11 in the camp ; and the son of the Israelitish 
woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed : and 
they brought him unto Moses. And his mother's 
name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of 

12 the tribe of Dan. And they put him in ward, 
that it might be declared unto them at the 
mouth of the Lord. 

13 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

14 Bring forth him that hath cursed without the 
camp ; and let all that heard him lay their 
hands upon his head, and let all the congrega- 

15 tion stone him. And thou shalt speak unto the 
children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth 

16 his God shall bear his sin. And he that blas- 
phemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely 
be put to death; all the congregation shall 
certainly stone him : as well the stranger, as 
the homeborn, when he blasphemeth the name 



presence, is not used here. The cakes were with- 
out doubt unleavened, according to the rule for 
the meal offering that was offered to Jehovah 
(2 : 11), though as none of this was burned on 
the altar the special reason for forbidding the 
leaven in the case of the ordinary meal offering 
did not exist. The quantity of fine flour in the 
cakes was the same as that of the wave loaves of 
Pentecost (23 : it) ; and we note the generous size 
— each cake containing two-tenths of an ephah 
or about six pounds and a quarter of flour. They 
were arranged in two piles rather than rows 
(ver. 6, see R. v., Margin )j and the inccnsc, according 
to Jewish tradition, was placed in golden saucers, 
one on each pile, and burned on the altar as an 
n'^3TK, 'azkarah, or memorial (ver. 7) on the 
removal of the loaves each Sabbath. 

10-23. The incident of the blasphemer, and 
the laws arising out of it. This is a somewhat 
peculiar interpolation of narrative as a basis 
for a law. A similar instance of law derived as 
a divine decision from a particular case is found 
in Num. 15 : 32-36. The uncertainty of the 
children of Israel as to what to do in the case 
was due not alone to this being the first instance 
of outspoken blasphemy, but especially to the 
fact that the transgressor was not strictly of the 
congregation of Israel, being the son of an 
Egyptian father. The offense is described as 
blaspheming the Name (ver. 11, see r. v.). This 



expression, the Name, used absolutely for 
Jehovah, is not found elsewhere in the Old 
Testament, and is a post-biblical expression 
which came into use in an age when the Jews 
shrank from pronouncing the sacred name itself. 
Some critics think that "the Name" has been 
substituted by the scribes for "Jehovah." The 
verb rendered blasphemed in ver. 11 is taken 
by Jewish interpreters as meaning pronounced 
(cf. LXX, 67rovo^ao-a5), and the rabbinists based 
on this verse the notion that it is not lawful to 
speak the name which we seek to represent by 
the word Jehovah or Jahveh. The true pronun- 
ciation of the name is irretrievably lost, it being 
known only that its consonants are JHVH, 
while for the original vowels others have sys- 
tematically been substituted from time immemo- 
rial by the scribes. 

The witnesses were directed (ver. 14) to lay 
their hands on the offender's head, perhaps in 
token of throwing off from themselves the blas- 
phemy which they had heard and returning it 
to the blasphemer himself, in a manner analo- 
gous to the washing of hands in Deut. 21 : 6. 
In the punishment of blasphemy described in 
Acts (7 : 58; 22 : 2o) the witucsscs evidently took 
the heaviest labor of the stoning. The law de- 
rived from the incident is specifically formu- 
lated in ver. 16, and is carefully made to in- 
clude the foreigner as well as the Israelite. The 



96 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXV. 



17 And he that killeth any man shall surely be 
put to death. 

18 And he that killeth a beast shall make it 
good ; beast for beast. 

19 And if a man cause a blemish in his neigh- 
bour ; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him ; 

20 Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth : 
as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it 
be done to him again. 

21 And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore 
it : and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to 
death. 

22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for 
the stranger, as for one of your own country: for 
I am the Lord your God. 

23 And Moses spake to the children of Israel, 
that they should bring forth him that had cursed 
out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And 
the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded 
Moses. 



17 of the Lord, shall be put to death. And he 
that smiteth any man mortally shall surely be 

18 put to death ; and he that smiteth a beast mor- 

19 tally shall make it good : life for life. And if a 
man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he 

20 hath done, so shall it be done to him ; breach 
for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth : as he 
hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be 

21 rendered unto him. And he that killeth a beast 
shall make it good : and he that killeth a man 

22 shall be put to death. Ye shall have one man- 
ner of law, as well for the stranger, as for the 

23 homeborn : for I am the Lord your God. And 
Moses spake to the children of Israel, and they 
brought forth him that had cursed out of the 
camp, and stoned him with stones. And the 
children of Israel did as the Lord commanded 
Moses. 



CHAPTEE XXV. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, 
saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, When ye come into the land which I give 
you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the 
Lord. 

3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years 
thoushalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the 
fruit thereof ; 

4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of 
rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord : thou 
shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. 

5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy 
harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the 
grapes of thy vine undressed : for it is a year of 
rest unto the land. 

6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for 
you ; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy 
maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stran- 
ger that sojourneth with thee, 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses in mount 

2 Sinai, saying. Speak unto the children of Israel, 
and say unto them, When ye come into the land 
which I give you, then shall the land keep a 

3 sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow 
thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy 

4 vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof ; but 
in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn 
rest for the land, a sabbath unto the Lord : thou 
shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vine- 

5 yard. That which groweth of itself of thy har- 
vest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy 
undressed vine thou shalt not gather : it shall 

6 be a year of solemn rest for the land. And the 
sabbath of the land shall be for food for you : 
for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, 
and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger 



laws given in ver. 17-22 are substantially a 
repetition of laws found in the book of the 
Covenant (Exod. 21 : 12-u, 23-25, 33-36), and are here 
introduced iu order, perhaps, that it may be 
made clear that, like the law for the blasphemer, 
they apply to foreigners as well as to the home- 
born (see ver. 22). 



Chap. 25. The sabbatical year and 
THE YEAR OF JuBiLEE. 1-7. The sabbatical 
year. The Lord spake unto Moses in 
mount Sinai. This is the only place in 
this book of Leviticus where a section is in- 
troduced by the specific note of the vrilder- 
ness of Sinai as the place where the revelation 
was given, though the statement repeatedly 
occurs in final subscriptions to the sections 

(see 7 : 38; 26 : 46 ; 27 : 34). The form of intro- 
duction not only sets ofi" this section by itself, 
but gives the writer or final compiler an air 
of remoteness from the event, as if he lived 
in another age. There is no sign of any recog- 
nition of this law in Israel previous to the exile. 
It certainly was disregarded or not known dur- 
ing seventy sabbatical cycles, or four hundred 
and ninety years previous to the exile, which 



must have covered the whole period of the mon- 
archy. The priestly post-exilic author of the 
Chronicles considers the captivity a judgment 
on this neglect (2 chron. 36 : 20, 21), and this opin- 
ion is apparently shared by the author of Leviti- 
cus himself, who notes the captivity in the form 
of a threat (see 26 : 34, 35) . This sabhath of the 
land (ver. 2) seems to have been marked by no 
special religious ceremonies or obligations, but 
to have consisted simply in letting the land lie 
fallow and allowing its spontaneous products 
to be used by all in common. Only remotely 
analogous to this sabbatical year was the early 

regulation (see Exod. 21 : 2, seq. ; Deut. 15 : 12, seq.) that 

the Hebrew servant should be released after six 
years of labor. It was prescribed in the book 
of the Covenant (Exod. 23 : 10, 11) that the crop of 
every seventh year — apparently the self-sown 
crop — should be left for the poor, and after them 
for the beasts. This fallow year, however, is 
not called a sabbath, nor is there any indication 
that all land was to lie fallow the same year. 
In this form a law prescribing one year's fallow 
in seven may have been anciently observed. 
But so long as the Hebrews were an agricultural 
people with little trade, in a land often severely 



Ch. XXV.] 



LEVITICUS 



'< 



7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in 
thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. 

8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years 
unto thee, seven times seven years ; and the space 
of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee 
forty and nine years. 

9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile 
to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, 
in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet 
sound throughout all your land. 

10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and pro- 
claim liberty throughout all the laud unto all the 
inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you ; 
and ye shall return every man unto his possession, 
and ye shall return every man unto his family. 

11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you : 
ye shall not sow, neither reap that vehich groweth 
of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine 
undressed. 

12 For it is the jubile ; it shall be holy unto you : 
ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. 

13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every 
man unto his possession. 

14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or 
buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not 
oppress one another : 

15 According to the number of years after the 
jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and accord- 
ing unto the number of years of the fruits he shall 
sell unto thee : 

16 According to the multitude of years thou shalt 
increase the price thereof, and according to the few- 
ness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it : 
for according to the number of the years of the fruits 
doth he sell unto thee. 

17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; 
but thou shalt fear thy God : for 1 am the Lord your 
God. 

18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep 
my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell 
in the land in safety. 

19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall 
eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 



ravaged by famines, a uniform and simultaneous 
"sabbath of the land " every seventh year would 
probably have been impossible. After the exile 
it seems to have been a recognized observance 
(see Josephus, Ant., XI., 8:6; XIV., 10 : 6), 
being agreed upon, indeed, by the returning 
exiles in a formal covenant (Neh. lo : si) ; but even 
then it was often productive of great hardships 

(l Mace. 6 : 49, 53 ; Josephus, Ant., XIV., 16 : 2). 

Ver. 19-22 constitute a sequel to this section 
on the sabbatic year and interrupt the connec- 
tion in their present position. "The verses 
were probably placed where they now stand by 
the redactor, who desired their contents to be 
referred to the Jubilee year as well as to the 
sabbatical year " (Deivee). 

8-24. The year of Jubilee with its feature of 
release. This year of Jubilee is again referred 
to in 27 : 17-25 and Num. 36 : 4. These are 
the only mentions of it in the Pentateuch. In 
Ezek. 46 : 16, 17 there is indication of a law by 
which "the prince" could give to one of his 
subjects a gift of real property belonging to his 
heritable estate only until "the year of liberty," 
that the people might not be scattered "every 
man from his possession." Aside from these 



7 that sojourn with thee ; and for thy cattle, and 
for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the 
increase thereof be for food. 

8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years 
unto thee, seven times seven years ; and there 
shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of 

9 years, even forty and nine years. Then shalt 
thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth 
day of the seventh month ; in the day of atone- 
ment shall ye send abroad the trumpet through- 

10 out all your land. And ye shall hallow the fif- 
tieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the 
land unto all the inhabitants thereof : it shall 
be a jubile unto you ; and ye shall return every 
man unto his possession, and ye shall return 

11 every man unto his family. A jubile shall that 
fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, 
neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, 
nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines. 

12 For it is a j ubile ; it shall be holy unto you : ye 
shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. 

13 In this year of jubile ye shall return every man 

14 unto his possession. And if thou sell aught unto 
thy neighbour, or buy of thy neighbour's hand, 

15 ye shall not wrong one another: according to 
the number of years after the jubile thou shalt 
buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the 
number of years of the crops he shall sell unto 

16 thee. According to the multitude of the years 
thou shalt increase the price thereof, and ac- 
cording to the fewness of the years thou shalt 
diminish the price of it; for tiie number of the 

17 crops doth he sell unto thee. And ye shall not 
wrong one another ; but thou shalt fear thy God : 

18 for I am the Lord your God. Wherefore ye shall 
do my statutes, and keep my judgements and do 
them ; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. 

19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall 



Gt 



passages the Jubilee is not referred to except 
in this chapter. The name is the Hebrew ^2)\ 
Jobhel, the name applied to the sound of the 
trumpet in Exod. 19 : 13 ; Josh. 6 : 5, and origi- 
nally meaning, according to Jewish tradition, 
a ram or ram's horn. The year began with the 
blowing of the trumpet after the completion of 
the solemn services of the Day of Atonement 
(ver. 9) and was to be a "hallowed" year, its 
great feature being liberty for all the land and 
its inhabitants, so that every man should return 
to his possession and to his family. In other 
respects it was to resemble the sabbatical year ; 
there was to be no sowing or reaping of that 
which grew of itself, nor gathering of grapes. 
According to ver. 10 this was to be the fiftieth 
year, and the difficulty of having two idle years 
for the land — the seventh sabbatical year or 
forty-ninth, and the fiftieth — immediately suc- 
ceeding each other has led some to conjecture 
that it may have been so reckoned as to make it 
coincide with the seventh sabbatical year. 

The price of all land sold was to be regulated 
according to the number of years yet to elapse 
before the Jubilee, as the property sold was 
strictly only the crops (ver. i6)\ the theory being 



98 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXV. 



20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the 
seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather 
in our increase : 

21 Then I will command my blessing upon you 
in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for 
three years. 

22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat xjet 
of old fruit until the ninth year ; until her fruits 
come in ye shall eat of the old store, 

23 The land shall not be sold for ever : for the 
land is mine ; for ye are strangers and sojourners 
with me. 

24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall 
grant a redemption for the land. 

25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold 
away some of his possession, and if any of his kin 
come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which 
his brother sold. 

26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and 
himself be able to redeem it ; 

27 Then let him count the years of the sale there- 
of, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom 
he sold it ; that he may return unto his possession. 

28 But if he be not able to restore it to him, then 
that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him 
that hath bought it until the year of jubile : and in 
tlie jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto 
his possession. 

29 And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled 
city, then he may redeem it within a v/ho]e year 
after it is sold ; within a full year may he redeem it. 

30 And if it be not redeemed within the space of 
a full year, then the house that is in the walled city 
shall be established for ever to him that bought it 
throughout his generations : it shall n t go out in 
the jubile. 



20 eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And 
if ye shall say. What shall we eat the seventh 
year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in 

21 our increase : then I will command my blessing 
upon you in the sixth j'ear, and it shall bring 

22 forth fruit for the three years. And ye shall sow 
the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old 
store ; until the ninth year, until her fruits come 

23 in, ye shall eat the old store. And the land 
shall not be sold in perpetuity • for the land is 
mine : for ye are strangers ana sojourners with 

24 me. And in all the land of your possession ye 
shall grant a redemption for the land. 

25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and sell some 
of his possession, then shall his kinsman that is 
next unto him come, and shall redeem that 

26 which his brother hath sold. And if a man 
have no one to redeem it, and he be waxen 

27 rich and find sufficient to redeem it ; then let 
him count the years of the sale thereof, and re- 
store the overplus unto the man to whom he 
sold it ; and he shall return unto his possession. 

28 But if he be not able to get it back for himself, 
then that which he hath sold shall remain in 
the hand of him that hath bought it until the 
year of jubile : and in the jubile it shall go out, 
and he shall return unto his possession. 

29 And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled 
city, then he may redeem it within a whole year 
after it is sold ; for a full year shall he have the 

30 right of redemption. And if it be not redeemed 
within the space of a full year, then the house 
that is in the walled city shall be made sure in 
perpetuity to him that bought it, throughout his 
generations: it shall not go out in the jubile. 



that the tenure of land was only a life tenancy 
with Jehovah as owner (ver. 23) and therefore 
the land could not be sold in perpetuity. At 
the end of every Jubilee period the land was 
to revert to the families among whom it was 
originally divided by lot (Num. 26 : 52-56; 33 : 54), 

" The comparative study of institutions shows 
what very different systems of land tenure exist 
in different ages and in different countries. 
Eights of individual ownership are sometimes 
not recognized at all, sometimes recognized only 
with limitations. Often the periodical redistri- 
bution of the land of a community is an imme- 
morial custom. . . Aristotle mentions a law 
among the Locrians resti-aining the sale of land 
and tending to keep the lots of land of equal 
size (Pol., 2:7; c/. 2 : 9 for Philolaus and the 
Tliebans). According to Strabo, among the Dal- 
matians a fresh distribution of land took place 
every eight years. We may compare also the 
early system of land tenure known as the shift- 
ing severalty, of which traces are found in many 
Aryan nations (Maine, 'Village Communities,' 
p. 81, seq.). Under this system the communal 
land was periodically redistributed in equal por- 
tions among the heads of families of a tribe or a 
township" (Deiver). 

25-28. The privilege of redemption. It is 
noticeable that no one appears to have been 
expected to part with his land except under the 
pressure of poverty. It was no doubt a matter 



of sentiment to keep the inheritance intact if 
possible (cf. 1 Kings 21 : 3). All land seems to 
have been bought subject to the right of redemp- 
tion ; the buyer was apparently obliged to sell, 
however much he might wish to retain the 
land till the Jubilee, if the price of redemption 
was tendered him. This is probably the mean- 
ing of ver. 24. The phrase any of his kin 
(ver. 25) is Only a derived meaning of the Hebrew 
word. The primary meaning is 7}<J, go' el, or re- 
deemer. The go'el was the one to whom per- 
tained the right of delivering, or ransoming, the 
person, or perpetuating his family by marrying 
the widow. In the case of homicide the mur- 
dered person's go'el was called the D'ln 1^^, 
go'el haddam, or avenger of blood, and it was 
his duty to demand back the blood of the person, 
or vindicate him. It is this term that Job uses 
when he says, "I know that my Redeemer liv- 
eth" (Job 19 : 25). Of course, as this right pri- 
marily inhered in the next of kin, the term 
came to have the derived signification of the 
nearest relative. 

29-34. Its application to cities and villages. 
Houses that were sold in walled cities remained 
subject to the right of redemption for a fall 
year ; after that not even the Jubilee could re- 
store them to their original possessor. This is 
the only case of perpetual possession that is 
possible under the terms of this chapter. 30. 
The word translated for ever, or inperpetuity, 



Ch. XXV.] 



LEVITICUS 



99 



31 But the houses of the villages which have no 
wall round about them shall be counted as the 
fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and 
they shall go out in the jubile. 

32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and 
the houses of the cities of their possession, may the 
Levites redeem at any time. 

33 And if a man purchase of the Levites, then 
the house that was sold, and the city of his posses- 
sion, shall go out in i;/ie2/earo/ jubile: for the houses 
of the cities of the Levites are their possession 
among the children of Israel. 

34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may 
not be sold ; for it is their perpetual possession. 

35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen 
in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him : 
yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner ; that he 
may live with thee. 

36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase : but 
fear thv God ; that thy brother may live with thee. 

37 Thou Shalt not give him thy money upon 
usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. 

38 I am the Lord your God, which brought you 
forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land 
of Canaan, and to be your God. 

39 And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be 
v^axen poor, and be sold unto thee ; thou shalt not 
compel him to serve as a bondservant ; 

40 BzU as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he 
shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the 
year of jubile : 

41 And then shall he depart from thee, both he and 
his children with him, and shall return unto his 
own family, and unto the possession of his fathers 
shall he return. 



31 But the houses of the villages which have no 
wall round about them shall be reckoned with 
the fields of the country : they may be redeemed, 

32 and they shall go out in the jubile. Neverthe- 
less the cities of the Levites, the houses of the 
cities of their possession, may the Levites re- 

33 deem at any time. And if one of the Levites 
redeem, then the house that was sold, and the 
city of his possession, shall go out in the jubile : 
for the houses of the cities of the Levites are 
their possession among the children of Israel. 

34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may 
not be sold ; for it is their perpetual possession. 

35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and his 
hand fail with thee ; then thou shalt uphold 
him : as a stranger and a sojourner shall he live 

36 with thee. Take thou no usury of him or in- 
crease ; but fear thy God : that thy brother may 

37 live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy 
money upon usury, nor give him thy victuals for 

38 increase. I am the Lord your God, which 
brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to 
give you the land of Canaan, to be your God. 

39 And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, 
and sell himself unto thee ; thou shalt not make 

40 him to serve as a bondservant : as an hired serv- 
ant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee; 
he shall serve with thee until the year of jubile : 

41 then shall he go out from thee, he and his chil- 
dren with him, and shall return unto his own 
family, and unto the possession of his fathers 



occurs only in that verse and in ver. 23, whei-e 
the right is denied. The villages were aggre- 
gations of farm buildings and cottages attached 
to contiguous estates and grouped together for 
greater security. These were, therefore, under 
the same conditions of redemption as the farms 
themselves. The Levitical cities enjoyed a per- 
petual right of redemption (see ver. 32) like the 
allotted estates of the tribes. 33. And if a 
man purchase of the Levites, rather, if one 
of the Levites redeem, as in E,. V. Even this ren- 
dering represents an imperfect text ; probably a 
not ought to be inserted after the word " redeem," 
as is done in the Vulgate (see Margin, R. V.). 
The house . . • and the city of his posses- 
sion appears to be a hendiadys for the house in 
the city of his possession, the meaning being that 
if the house sold belonged to one of the Levitical 
cities, and was not a house that the Levite pos- 
sessed in some other place, it should return to 
him without compensation at the Jubilee. As 
to the pastures about the Levitical cities and 
belonging to them (ver. 34), these could not be 
alienated at all. For the legislation regarding 
the institution of Levitical cities, see Num. 35. 
It is to be observed that the term liCvites used 
in this section (ver. 32, 33) has not before been 
used or defined in the book, a fact which some 
critics take as evidence of a later insertion. 

35-38. Warning against oppression. The 
construction of the latter part of ver. 35 in the 
Hebrew is somewhat awkward. It literally 



reads. Thou shalt lay hold of him a stranger and 
a sojourner, and he shall live with thee. The 
Revised version probably comes as near as 
practicable to the sense. The purport of the 
regulation appears to be, that the Israelite who 
had become so poor as to sell his land was not 
to be treated as an outcast ; he was rather to be 
considered as having the same standing and 
consideration as a resident foreigner, who was 
also debarred from holding land. The practice 
of taking advantage of the brother's necessity 
to exact usury or increase is strongly condemned. 
Deuteronomy also forbids the lending upon 
usury to one of the Israelitish nation, but per- 
mits it in dealing with foreigners (oeut. 23 : 19, 20). 
It was the well-nigh universal habit in ancient 
times to look upon a loan as an act of help or 
relief, rather than as a commercial transaction, 
and hence usury or interest appeared as oppres- 
sion or illegitimate gain (cf. ps. 15 : 5 ; Ezek. is : 8), 
39-46, Of the holding of bondmen by 
Hebrews. This law with reference to the hold- 
ing of slaves differs very materially from that 
given in the earlier book of the Covenant (Exod. 
21 : 2, seq.) and also from the legislation in 
Deuteronomy (Deut. 15 : 12, seq.). According to 
those passages the Hebrew bondman (Exod.) or 
bondwoman (Deut.) was to be released after 
seven years of service unless he or she expressed 
a preference for a perpetual servitude, for which 
a special legal form was provided. By the law 
in this place an Israelite who is so impoverished 



100 



LjiVITICUS 



[Ch. XXV. 



42 For they are my servants, which I brought 
forth out 01 the land of Egj'pt : they shall not be 
sold as bondmen. 

43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour ; but 
shalt fear thy God. 

44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which 
thou shalt have, sliall be of the heathen that are 
round about you ; of them shall ye buy bondmen 
and bondmaids. 

45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that 
do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and 
of their families that are with you, which they 
begat in your land : and they shall be your posses- 
sion. 

46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for 
your children after you, to inherit them for a pos- 
session ; they shall be your bondmen for ever : but 
over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall 
not rule one over another with rigour. 



42 shall he return. For they are my servants, 
which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: 

43 they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt 
not rule over him with rigour ; but shalt fear 

44 thy God, And as for thy bondmen, and thy 
bondmaids, which thou shalt have ; of the na- 
tions that are round about you, of them shall ye 

45 buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the 
children of the strangers that do sojourn among 
you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families 
that are with you, which they have begotten in 
your land : and they shall be your possession. 

46 And ye shall make them an inheritance for your 
children after you, to hold for a possession ; of 
them shall ye take j-our bondmen for ever : but 
over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall 
not rule, one over another, with rigour. 



as to sell himself into slavery is to be treated 
humanely as a hired servant, and is to be re- 
leased at the Jubilee ; while perpetual bondmen 
or bondwomen may be had only of foreigners. 
The mitigation here prescribed of the harshness 
attending bond-service consists therefore only in 
humane treatment rather than in the brevity of 
the term, while the period of servitude may ex- 
tend to fifty years. The method of harmonizing 
this law with the earlier ones has been to make 
this Jubilee law presuppose the system of release 
every seven years, and mean that the Hebrew 
slave could claim his freedom at the year of 
Jubilee even though it happened to fall in an 
uncompleted septennial term of service. But 
the legislation neither in Exodus nor in Deut- 
eronomy betrays any knowledge on the law- 
giver's part of the existence of this Jubilee, and 
it is difacult to see how the divergent laws could 
all have been in operation at the same time. 
Experience at the time of Zedekiah (Jer. 34 : 8-i6) 
showed that the Deuteronomic law could not 
easily be enforced, and modern critics have 
reasoned that this system of manumission of 
slaves at the Jubilee, now appearing in Leviticus, 
was instituted after that difficulty had become 
apparent. While the Jubilee, so far as concerned 
the ownership of land, may not have been a 
mere paper law or theoretical completion of the 
system of seven, as some have maintained, yet 
its extension to the manumission of slaves may 
have dated from a time subsequent to the dis- 
covery that, as Hebrew society advanced, the 
law enjoining only a short term of enslavement 
was found impracticable. 

To say that the institution of slavery was 
recognized and used by the ancient people of 
Israel is but to say that the nation was not 
wholly detached from the universal ideals and 
social canons of their time. They found the 
practice of holding slaves as a part of the uni- 
versal industrial system, coming down unques- 



tioned from the remotest antiquity, and their 
institutions were so framed as to afford the wisest 
mitigation of the practice. To have put a stop 
to the immemorial custom at a given signal, and 
without preparation and education, would have 
been contrary to all the methods by which suc- 
cessful changes have been produced in society. 
As it was, it seems that legislation outstripped 
the possible pace of the people, so that a modi- 
fication was found necessary by the time the 
priestly legislation was codified. The two great 
motives which were found workable for mitiga- 
ting the harshness of slavery were brotherhood 
in an exalted nationality and memory of past 
bondage as a personal experience. The Hebrew 
was not remanded to slavery except as a resource 
to which he was willing to resort in order to 
fulfill his obligations. No doubt in the imper- 
fect state of Jewish society the poor were often 
forced into this condition by harsh creditors (see 
2 Kings 4:1; Neh. 5 : 3-5), but this was far different 
from systematically constituting a market of 
Hebrew slaves and drawing on it for the labor 
supply. This was forbidden, and no doubt the 
prohibition was measurably successful. At the 
same time the term of bondage was limited, so 
that a hereditary slave class became impossible. 
Then underlying all the prescribed treatment of 
the Hebrew servant, as a motive for forbearance 
from unduly degrading or abusing him, and for 
extending to him the benefit of the sabbath rest, 
was the consideration, " He is thy brother," and 
"Thou wast a slave in the land of Egypt," 
There was thus a constant appeal to the higher 
nature, and a bringing to bear of the most 
humanizing motives possible under the circum- 
stances. All this tended to make slavery in 
Israel far different from the helpless and hope- 
less condition which it was in Eoman society, 
or even in more modern times among the Negroes 
of North America, 
While these humanizing motives in ancient 



Ch. XXVI.] 



LEVITICUS 



101 



47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by 
thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, 
and sell himself unto the tftraiiger or sojourner by 
thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family : 

48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed 
again ; one of his brethren may redeem him : 

49 Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may re- 
deem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of 
his family may redeem him ; or if he be able, he 
may redeem himself. 

50 And he shall reckon with him that bought 
him from the year that he was sold to him unto tlie 
year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be 
according unto the number of years, according to 
the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. 

51 If there he yet many years behind, according 
unto them he shall give again the price of his re- 
demption out of the money that he was bought for. 

52 And if there remain but few years unto the 
year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and 
according unto his years shall he give him again 
the price of his redemption. 

53 And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with 
him : and the other shall not rule with rigour over 
him in thy sight. 

54 And if he be not redeemed in these years, then 
he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and 
his children with him. 

55 For unto me the children of Israel are serv- 
ants ; they are my servants whom I brought forth 
out of the land of Egypt : I am the Lord your God. 



47 And if a stranger or sojourner with thee be 
waxen rich, and thy brother be waxen poor be- 
side him, and sell himself unto the stranger or 
sojourner with thee, or to the stock of the stran- 

48 ger's family : after that he is sold he may be re- 
deemed ; one of his brethren may redeem him : 

4y or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, 
or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family 
may redeem him ; or if he be waxen rich, he 

50 may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with 
him that bought him from the year that he sold 
himself to him unto the year of jubile : and the 
price of his sale shall be according unto the 
number of years; according to the time of an 

51 hired servant shall he be with him. If there be 
yet many years, according unto them he shall 
give back the price of his redemption out of the 

52 money that he was bought for. And if there 
remain but few years unto the year of jubile, 
then he shall reckon with him ; according unto 
his years shall he give back the price of his re- 

53 demption. As a servant hired year by year shall 
he be with him : he shall not rule with rigour 

54 over him in thy sight. And if he be not re- 
deemed by these means, then he shall go out in 
the year of jubile, he, and his children with him. 

55 For unto me the children of Israel are servants ; 
they are my servants whom I brought forth out 
of the land of Egypt : 1 am the Lord your God. 



times were operative only in the Hebrew's deal- 
ings with his brethren, and did not inure to the 
benefit of foreign slaves, they are nevertheless 
the same motives which, extended and spiritual- 
ized, have after long ages of silent working 
finally prevailed to banish slavery as an institu- 
tion from Christian society. They must first 
become strong enough to affect human selfish- 
ness on the limited stage of a chosen nation before 
they could attack the entrenched wrong on the 
wider field of humanity. The old Hebrew 
brotherhood in a common nationality has under 
the working of the spirit of Christ broadened 
into the brotherhood of humanity; and the 
emancipation from bitter bondage which now 
serves even more efiiciently as a humanizing in- 
spiration than did the memory of the deliverance 
from Egypt is the common salvation in Jesus 
Christ which is the hope of the world. No man 
in whom the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ has 
had its legitimate effect can any longer find it 
in his heart to oppress his brother, of whatever 
race, or deprive him of that gift which a com- 
mon consciousness of a divine sonship has caused 
to be preeminently valued in modern times — 
the gift of liberty. 

47-55. On the holding of bondmen by for- 
eigners. In the case of bondage to a resident 
foreigner emphasis is placed on the principle 
that through all the period of servitude the right 
of redemption is in existence, and must be al- 
lowed if the slave finds a kinsman who will re- 
deem him or comes into the possession of prop- 
erty for his own redemption. The price is to be 



regulated according to the time, reckoned at the 
current wages of hired labor, still to elapse 
before the Jubilee. The Hebrew must not allow 
his kinsman to be harshly enslaved and cruelly 
worked in his sight. If none of the prescribed 
means of redemption are found, the bondman 
becomes free without compensation in the Jubi- 
lee. The general basis for all these laws of free- 
dom is the inspiring truth that, as the land is 
Jehovah's (ver. 23), so also the children of Israel 
are Jehovah's own servants and therefore can- 
not pass into the absolute control of any other 
owner. The influence of this feeling on the 
Jewish Christian consciousness is seen in Rom. 
14:4. 

"So much for the Levitical law ; as regards 
its observance the evidence of history is not 
voluminous, but Jer. 34 : 14 seems to show con- 
clusively that in his time at least the law 
acknowledged by the prophets was that de- 
scribed in Deut. 15, according to which the 
rights of Hebrew slaveholders over their com- 
patriots were invariably to cease seven years 
after they had been acquired. After the exile 
the law of Lev. 25 was also certainly disre- 
garded ; the Talmudists and rabbins are unan- 
imous that although the Jubilee years were 
'reckoned' they were not observed" ("Encyc. 
Brit.," XIIL, 759). 



Chap. 26. Hortatory conclttsion. 1, 
2. ProJiibition of idolatry and. injunction to 
keep the Sabbath. Those verses are connected 
with the preceding chapter in the Hebrew Bible, 



102 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXVI. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



1 YE shall make you no idols nor graven image, 
neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall 
ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow 
down unto it : for I am the Lord your God. 

2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my 
sanctuary : I am the Lord. 

3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my com- 
mandments, and do them ; 

4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and 
the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of 
the field shall yield their fruit. 

5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vin- 
tage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing 
time : and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and 
dwell in your land safely. 

6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall 
lie down, and none shall make you afraid : and I 
will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall 
the sword go through your land. 

7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they 
shall fall before you by the sword. 

8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and 
an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight : 
and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 

9 For I will have respect unto you, and make 
you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my 
covenant with you. 

10 And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the 
old because of the new. 

11 And I will set my tabernacle among you : and 
my soul shall not abhor you. 

12 And I will walk among you, and will be your 
God, and ye shall be my people. 

13 lam the Lord your God, which brought you 
forth out of the land of Egj-pt, that ye should not 
be their bondmen ; and I have broken the bands of 
your j'oke, and made you go upright. 

14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will 
not do all these commandments ; 

15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if 
your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will 
not do all my commandments, but that ye break my 
covenant : 



1 YE shall make you no idols, neither shall ye 
rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither 
shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to 
bow down unto it : for I am the Lord your God. 

2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my 
sanctuary : I am the Lord. 

3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my com- 

4 mandments, and do them ; then I will give your 
rains in their season, and the land shall yield 
her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield 

5 their fruit. And 5'our threshing shall reach unto 
the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto 
the sowing time : and ye shall eat your bread to 

6 the full, and dwell in \ouy laud safely. And I 
will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie 
down, and none shall make you afraid : and I 
will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, 
neither shall the sword go through your land. 

7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall 

8 fall before you by the sword. And five of you 
shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you 
shall chase ten thousand : and your eneraies 

9 shall fall before you by the sword. And I will 
have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, 
and multiply you ; and will establish my cove- 

10 nant with you. And ye shall eat old store long 
kept, and ye shall bring forth the old because 

11 of the new. And I will set my tabernacle among 

12 you : and my soul shall not abhor you. And I 
will walk among you, and will be your God, and 

13 ye shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, 
which brougiat you forth out of the land of 
Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen ; 
and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and 
made you go upright. 

14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will 

15 not do all these commandments ; and if ye shall 
reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor my 
judgements, so that ye will not do all my com- 



but they do not form a very close connection 
either with that or with the present chapter. 
They form a section by themselves. 

1. Idols, lit., things of nought (cf. i Cor. 8 : 4). 
Standing image, rather, pillar, as in R. V., 
and image of stone, or raih^r, figured stone 
(R. v.), refer to obelisks or symbolical monu- 
ments which might in any way minister to the 
ever-besetting temptation in Palestine to the 
worship of idols. The latter term is found only 
here. To bow down unto it restricts the 
prohibition. Do not erect these memorials for 
idolatrous purposes. Ver. 2 is repeated from 
19 : 30. 

3-13. Hortatory conclusion to the Law of 
Holiness : Blessings promised for obedience. 
These promises and threatenings are to be com- 
pared with those at the conclusion of the book 
of the Covenant (Exod. 23 : 20-33) and of the Deu- 
teronomic code (oeut. 28). As is characteristic 
of the Law of Holiness, the blessings upon the 
land and agriculture are made emphatic as a 
religious incentive. For faithfulness in keep- 
ing Jehovah's statutes and commandments there 



are promised abundant seasons with continuous 
ingathering (ver. 4, 5), peace and security (ver. 5, 6) , 
prowess in war (ver. 7, a), populousness, and 
abundance of provision (ver. 9, 10), God's sanctu- 
ary among them and the continuance of his favor 
(ver. 11, 12). The whole concludes with the ex- 
pression characteristic of the Law of Holiness, 
"I am Jehovah your God," and wdth a refer- 
ence to the deliverance from Egypt and its 
bondage. 

Tliere are many striking resemblances in this 
passage to Ezekiel — too striking to be altogether 

accidental (comp. ver. 4 with Ezek. 34 : 26, 27 ; ver. 6 with 
Ezek. 34 : 25 ; ver. 11 with Ezek. 37 : 26, 27 ) ^ but which is 

the superior in point of originality it is impos- 
sible to determine. Somewhat striking simi- 
larities between Joel 2 : 22-27 and this section 
have also been noted. My tabernacle (ver. ii) 
should rather be, my sanctuary, or dwelling- 
place, whether a tent or a temple. 

14-33. The five warnings for disobedience. 
The first warning (ver. i4-is) threatens a phys- 
ical debility that shall break their spirit and 
bring them under the fear and oppression of 



Ch. XXVI.] 



LEVITICUS 



103 



16 I also will do this unto you ; I will even ap- 
point over you terror, consumption, and the burn- 
ing ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause 
sorrow of heart : and ye shall sow your seed in 
vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 

17 And I will set my face against you, and ye 
shall be slain before your enemies : they that hate 
you shall reign over you ; and ye shall flee when 
none pursueth you. 

18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto 
me, then I will punish you seven times more for 
your sins. 

19 And I will break the pride of your power ; and 
I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as 
brass : 

20 And your strength shall be spent in vain : for 
your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall 
the trees of the land yield their fruits. 

21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not 
hearken unto me ; I will bring seven times more 
plagues upon you according to your sins. 

22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which 
shall rob you of your children, and destroy your 
cattle, and make you few in number; and your 
high, ways shall be desolate. 

23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these 
things, but will walk contrary unto me ; 

24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and 
will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 

25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall 
avenge the quarrel of my covenant : and when ye 
are gathered together within your cities, I will send 
the pestilence among you ; and ye shall be deliv- 
ered into the hand of the enemy. 

26 And when I have broken the staff of your 
bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one 
oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again 
by weight : and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 

27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto 
me, but walk contrary unto me ; 

28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in 
fury ; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times 
for your sins. 

29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and 
the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 

30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut 
down your images, and cast your carcases upon the 
carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 

31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring 
your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not 
smell the savour of your sweet odours. 



16 mandments, but break my covenant ; I also will 
do this unto you ; I will appoint terror over you, 
even consumption and fever, that shall consume 
the eyes, and make the soul to pine away : and 
ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies 

17 shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, 
and ye shall be smitten before your enemies : 
they that hate you shall rule over you ; and ye 

18 shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye 
will not yet for these things hearken unto me, 
then I will chastise you seven times more for 

19 your sins. And I will break the pride of your 
power ; and I will make your heaven as iron, 

20 and your earth as brass : and your strength shall 
be spent in vain : for your land shall not yield 
her increase, neither shall the trees of the land 

21 yield their fruit. And if ye walk contrary unto 
me, and will not hearken unto me : I will bring 
seven times more plagues upon you according 

22 to your sins. And I will send tlie beast of the 
field among you, which shall rob you of your 
children, and destroy your cattle, and make you 
few in number; and your ways shall become 

23 desolate. And if by these things ye will not be 
reformed unto me, but will walk contrary unto 

24 me ; then will I also walk contrary unto you ; 
and I will smite you, even I, seven times for 

25 your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, 
that shall execute the vengeance of the cove- 
nant ; and ye shall be gathered together within 
your cities : and I will send the pestilence among 
you ; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of 

26 the enemy. When I break your staff of bread, 
ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, 
and they shall deliver your bread again by 
weight : and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 

27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto 

28 me, but walk contrary unto me ; then I will walk 
contrary unto you in fury ; and I also will chas- 

29 tise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall 
eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your 

30 daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your 
high places, and cut down your sun-images, and 
cast your carcases upon the carcases of your 

31 idols ; and my soul shall abhor you. And I will 
make your cities a waste, and will bring your 
sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell 



their enemies. 16. Consumption and the 
burning ague, or rather, consumption and 
fever, are perhaps general terms for wasting 
disease and inflammatory disease. To con- 
sume the eyes and to make the life waste 
away is a form of speech that often recurs 
in prophetic threatenings (cf. i Sam. a : 33 ; Deut. 

28 : 65), 

In the second warning (ver. 18-20) an aggra- 
vated or " seven-fold " punishment is threatened 
through drought. 19. The peculiar expres- 
sion, to break the pride of your power 

occurs elsewhere only in Ezekiel where it is 

characteristic (see Ezek. 24 : 21 ; 30 : 6; 33 : 28). 

The third warning (ver. 21, 22) sets forth as a 
" seven-fold " visitation the reducing of the pop- 
ulation by wild beasts until the roads become 
desolate. 

According to the fourth warning (ver. 23-26) 
the rebellious people shall be crowded by war 
into their cities where pestilence shall break 



out and scarcity of food shall reduce them to the 
scantiest rations. 26. To break the staff of 
your bread is another Ezekiel expression 
(Ezek. 4: 16; 5 : 16 ; u : 13), though Something like 
it is also used by Isaiah (s : i). 

The fifth warning (ver. 2T-33) is the most 
severe. It threatens the most dreadful destitu- 
tion for the people, the destruction of their 
idolatrous symbols, the laying waste of their 
cities, the rejection of their sacrifices, an aston- 
ishing desolation of the land, and captivity 
among the nations. The eating of the flesh of 
their off"spring (ver. 29) actually occurred at the 
siege of Samaria by the Syrians (2 Kings e : 28, 29) 
and in Jerusalem at the time of Nebuchadnez- 
zar's siege (Lam. 4 : 10), and also at its final de- 
sti'uction under Titus (sec jos., Beii. jud., v., 10 : 3). 
30. The images are pillars or images dedi- 
cated to the sun, as indicated in K. V. Idols, 
lit., clods, or what can be rolled about, is 
probably a contemptuous designation. The Poly- 



104 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXVI. 



32 And I will bring the land into desolation : and 
your enemies which dwell therein shall be aston- 
ished at it. 

33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, 
and will draw out a sword after you : and your 
land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 

34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as 
long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' 
land ; eren then shall the land rest, and enjoy her 
sabbaths. 

35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest ; be- 
cause it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye 
dwelt upon it. 

36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will 
send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of 
their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf 
shall chase them ; and they shall flee, as fleeing 
from a sword ; and they shall fall when none pur- 
sueth. 

37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it 
were before a sword, Avheu none pursueth : and ye 
shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 

38 And ye shall j)erish among the heathtu, and 
the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 

39 And they that are left of you shall pine away 
in their iniquity in your enemies' lands ; and also 
in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine 
away with them. 

40"lf they shall confess their iniquity, and the 
iniquity of their fathers, Avith their trespass which 
they trespassed against me, and that also they have 
walked contrary unto me ; 

41 And that I also have walked contrary unto 
them, and have brought them into the land of their 
enemies ; if then their uncircumcised hearts be 
humbled, and they then accept of the punishment 
of their iniquity : 

42 Then will* I remember my covenant with 
Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also 
my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and 
I will remember the land. 

43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall 
enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate with- 
out them : and they shall accept of the punishment 
of their iniquity": because, even because they 
despised my judgments, and because their soul 
abhorred my statutes. 

44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land 
of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither 
will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to 
break my covenant with them : for I am the Lord 
their God. 



32 the savour of your sweet odours. And I will 
bring the land into desolation : and your enemies 
which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 

33 And you will I scatter among the nations, and 
I will draw out the sword after you : and your 
land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall 

34 be a waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sab- 
baths, as long as it lieth desolate, and" ye be in 
your enemies' land ; even then shall the land 

35 rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth 
desolate it shall have rest ; even the rest which 
it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon 

86 it. And as for them that are left"of you, I will 
send a faintness into their heart in the lands of 
their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf 
shall chase them; and they shall flee, as ouefleeth 
from the sword ; and they shall fall when none 

37 pursueth. And they shall stumble one upon 
another, as it were before the sword, when none 
pursueth : and ye shall have no power to stand 

38 before your enemies. And ye shall perish among 
the nations, and the land of your enemies shall 

39 eat you up. And they that are left of you shall 
pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' 
lands ; and also in the iniquities of their fathers 

40 shall they pine away with them. And tliey 
shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of 
their fathers, in their trespass which they tres- 

Eassed against me. and also that because they 
ave walked contrary unto me, I also walked 
contrary unto them, and brought them into the 
land of their enemies : if then their uncircum- 
cised heart be humbled, and they then accept 

42 of the punishment of their iniquity ; then will 
I remember my covenant with Jacob ; and also 
my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant 
with Abraham w ill I remember ; and I will re- 

43 member the land. The land also shall be left 
of them, and shall enjoy her sabbath, while she 
lieth desolate without them ; and they shall ac- 
cept of the punishment of their iniquity : be- 
cause, even because they rejected my judge- 
ments, and their soul abhorred my statutes. 

44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land 
of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither 
will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and 
to break mv covenant with "them : for I a"m the 



chrome Bible preserves the contemptuous im- 
plication by the rendering fetishes. 33. To 
draw out a sword after any one is another 
of Ezekiel's characteristic expressions (cf. Ezek. 

5 : 2, 12 ; 12 : 14). 

34-45. Results of the visitation upon the land 
and upon the people. A prominent result of 
which the author makes great account is that the 
land shall enjoy a rest as a satisfaction for the 
long neglect of the sabbatic year. This was the 
interpretation put upon the captivity by the 
author of Chronicles (see 2 chron. 36 : 21). The 
land shall literally accept her sabbaths (ver. 3+), 
i. e., perhaps he paid them as her due. The 
term appears to be the technical term for being 
satisfied by the settlement of an account. With 
the same signification the children of Israel are 
said in ver. 41 to accept or be paid the punish- 
ment of their iniquity. This important rest of 
the land, as the triumphant result of the divine 



visitations, is again recurred to in ver. 43. The 
writer evidently had strong feelings regarding 
the sabbatic year, and talks like one who knew 
that it had not been observed. 

The results upon the nation are, first, an ex- 
traordinary nervelessness and timidity, so that 
they pine or consume away and perish in their 
enemies' land. It is said (^er. 3s) that the land 
of their enemies shall eat them up, a peculiar 
expression used also by the timid spies regarding 
the Promised Land (see xum. 13 : 32)^ though pos- 
sibly with not exactly the same meaning. Here 
it probably means that they shall so lose 
their national identity in the strange land that 
they shall never come forth as a distinct body, 
and it shall be as if the land had devoured them. 
Another result will be that the nation will con- 
fess their iniquities and those of their fathers; 
and the gracious assui-ance is given that if their 
nncircunicised, i, e., stupid, heart (cf. Jer..* 4; 



Ch. XXVII.] 



LEVITICUS 



105 



45 But I will for their sakes remember the cove- 
nant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out 
of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, 
that I might be their God : I am the Lord. 

46 These are the statutes and judgments and 
laws, which the Lord made between him and the 
children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of 
Moses. 



45 Lord their God : but I will for their sakes re- 
member the covenant of their ancestors, whom 
I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the 
sight of the nations, that I might be their God : 
I am the Lord. 

46 These are the statutes and judgements and 
laws, which the Lord made between him and 
the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the 
hand of Moses. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them. When a man shall make a singular vow, the 
persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation. 

3 And thy estimation shall be of the male from 
twenty j'^ears old even unto sixty years old, even 
thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after 
tlie shekel of the sanctuary. 

4 And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall 
be thirty shekels. 

5 And it be from five years old even unto twenty 
years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male 
twenty shekels, aiid for the female ten shekels. 

6 And if it be from a month old even unto five 
years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male 
five shekels of silver, and for the female thy esti- 
mation shall be three shekels of silver. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, When a man shall accomplish a vow, the 
persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation. 

3 And thy estimation shall be of the male from 
twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even 
thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, 

4 after the shekel of the sanctuary. And if it be 
a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty 

5 shekels. And if it be from five years old even 
unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall 
be of the male twenty shekels, and for the 

6 female ten shekels. And if it be from a month 
old even unto five years old, then thy estimation 
shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and 
for the female thy estimation shall be three 



9 : 26 ; Deut. 10 : 16 ; 30 : 6) is humbled SO ES to accept 
the punishment, God will remember his cove- 
nant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the 
land of their enemies the covenant will be in 
abeyance, not destroyed utterly, and therefore 
their punishment shall be the salutary chasten- 
ing of one who is still their God. 

46. Subscription to the Law of Holiness. A 
subscription is appended here as if this marked 
the end of the Sinai legislation. This may be 
because the following chapter is of the nature of 
an appendix, and therefore the law is regarded 
as strictly completed here ; but more probably 
the subscription here marks the end of that dis- 
tinct stratum of the documentary material which 
has been denominated the Law of Holiness. 



Chap. 27. On the commutation of 
vows AND DUES. After the distinct section, 
chaps. 17-26, this supplementary chapter re- 
verts to the characteristics of P. We note at 
once an instance in the form, "a man if" 
(ver. 2)^ noticed as a characteristic of P, in the 
note on 1 : 2. In its reference to the year of 
Jubilee, however, and in some of its literary 
marks, this chapter shows affinities with chap. 
25, and probably owes its present position to 
the redactor who brought the whole together 
into one book. 

1-25. The commutation of vows. The vow 
was a voluntary dedicating of persons or prop- 
erty to Jehovah. In fixing the scale of estima- 
tions, vows of persons (ver. 2-8), of animals, clean 
or unclean (ver. 9-13), of houses (ver. 14, 15), and of 
fields, belonging to one's hereditary possession 



or acquired by purchase (ver. 16-25), are men- 
tioned. No one was obliged to make a vow, but 
once made the vow became an obligation which 

must be performed (see Ceut. 23 : 21-23 ; cf. Num. 
30 : 2 ; Ps. 15 : 4 ; Prov. 20 : 25 ; Eccl. 5 : 4, 5). It is the 

substance of this legislation to which Jesus re- 
fers in his teaching regarding the oath (Matt. 5 : 
33-37) . Perhaps in the earlier times the vow was 
regarded as so literally obligatory as to know no 
possibility of commutation or mitigation, as in 
the case of Jephthah (Judg. 11 : 30, seq.), while by 
the time the priestly legislation had assumed its 
final shape the custom of vowing was becoming 
conventionalized, so that the act of dedicating a 
person implied that he was to be redeemed ac- 
cording to a fixed tariff. It had become the act 
of giving money under the form of a dedication 
of persons or property in kind. The dedicating 
of a person to the sanctuary Avas not improbably 
regarded as a more solemn act than the simple 
promising of so much money. This custom is 
alluded to in 2 Kings 12 : 4. 

When a man shall make a singular 
vow, etc. (ver. 2)^ rather, as more literally ren- 
dered, If a man shall set apart a vow, in thy valu- 
ation, of persons. The case contemplated is that 
of a man's setting apart a person by vow, either 
himself, or some of his family or dependents. A 
fixed tariff of valuations follows, according to 
which the person's dedication to the sanctuary 
might be commuted for money. The valuation 
was perhaps based on the average value of one's 
services as a laborer for the period mentioned, 
or the excess of that value over the cost of his 
maintenance. Thus the age from twenty to 



106 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXVIl. 



7 And if it be from sixty years old and above ; if 
it he a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen 
shekels, and for the female tea shekels. 

8 But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then 
he shall present himself before the priest, and the 
priest shall value him ; according to his ability that 
vowed shall the priest value him. 

9 And if it he a beast, whereof men bring an offer- 
ing unto the Lord, all that any viun giveth of such 
unto the Lord shall be holy. 

10 He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for 
a bad, or a bad for a good : and if he shall at all 
change beast for beast, then it and the exchange 
thereof shall be holy. 

11 And if it he any unclean beast, of which they 
do not offer a sacrihce unto the Lord, then he shall 
present the beast before the priest : 

12 And the priest shall value it, whether it be 
good or bad : as thou valuest it, who art the priest, 
so shall it be. 

13 But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall 
add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation. 

14 And when a man shall sanctify his house to he 
holy unto the Lord, then the priest shall estimate 
it, whether it be good or bad : as the priest shall 
estimate it, so shall it stand. 

15 And if he that sanctified it will redeem his 
house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money 
of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his. 

16 And if a man shall sanctify unto the Lord 
some part of a field of his possession, then thy esti- 
mation shall be according to the seed thereof : an 
homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels 
of silver. 

17 If he sanctify his field from the year of jubile, 
according to thy estimation it shall stand. 

18 But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, 
then the priest shall reckon unto him the money 
according to the years that remain, even unto the 
year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from thy 
eatimation. 



7 shekels of silver. And if it be from sixty 
years old and upward ; if it be a male, then 
thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for 

8 the female ten shekels. But if he be poorer 
than thy estimation, then he shall be set before 
the priest, and the priest shall value him ; ac- 
cording to the ability of him that vowed shall 
the priest value him. 

9 And if it be a beast, whereof men offer an ob- 
lation unto the Lord, all that any man giveth of 

10 such unto the Lord shall be holy. He shall not 
alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a 
bad for a good ; and if he shall at all change 
beast for beast, then both it and that for which 

11 it is changed shall be holy. And if it be any un- 
clean beast, of which they do not olEfer an obla- 
tion unto the Lord, then he shall set the beast 

12 before the priest : and the priest shall value it, 
whether it be good or bad : as thou the priest 

13 valuest it, so shall it be. But if he will indeed 
redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part thereof 
unto thy estimation. 

14 And when a man shall sanctify his house to 
be holy unto the Lord, then the priest shall esti- 
mate it, whether it be good or bad : as the priest 

15 shall estimate it, so shall itstand. And if he that 
sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall 
add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation 
unto it, and it shall be his. 

16 And if a man shall sanctify unto the Lord part 
of the field of his possession, then thy estimation 
shall be according to the sowing thereof : the 
sowing of a homer of barley shall he valued at fifty 

17 shekels of silver. If he sanctify his field from the 
year of jubile, according to thy estimation it shall 

18 stand. But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, 
then the priest shall reckon unto him the money 
according to the years that remain unto the year 
of jubile, and an abatement shall be made from 



sixty commands the highest valuation, and that 
from five to twenty next, while the tender age 
from infancy to childhood is valued low, and 
the period of old age is, for the male at least, 
rated at a price a little below that of the period 
of youth. The shekel of the sanctuary is pro- 
bably the official shekel (see on 5 : i5). This 
valuation of Moses was not a rigid rule ; in case 
the person making the vow was too poor to meet 
it, the fixing of the sum was left to the discre- 
tion of the priest (ver. 8). 

In the case of beasts of such kinds as are 
offered in sacrifice being vowed (ver. 9) there 
seems to be no provision made for commuting 
the vow in money. It is taken for granted that 
the beast will be offered, the only provision that 
is insisted on being that there shall be no chang- 
ing of good for bad, or bad for good. If this is 
attempted, both the animal on which the lot fell 
and its chosen substitute are to be taken to 
satisfy the vow. If the vow was of an unclean 
beast (ver. 11) J unadapted to the uses of the sanc- 
tuary, then the priest on inspection was to 
value it "between good and bad," i. e., as to 
how good or bad it was, and then it was to be 
sold at that valuation (cf. ver. 27) ; or if the 
owner wished to retain it he might do so by 
adding a fifth to the price. 



Houses (ver. 14, 15) when vowed were subject 
to the same rule as unclean beasts, i. e., sold at 
the priest's valuation and the money turned into 
the sacred treasury, or redeemed by the addi- 
tion of one-fifth to the price. It is to be re- 
membered that if houses were in the country 
they were subject to the same right of redemp- 
tion at the Jubilee as the fields (25 : 31), while in 
walled towns that right lapsed at the end of one 
year (25 : 29). This was no doubt taken into 
the account by the priest in his fixing of the 
valuation. 

The value of a field belonging to the vower's 
hereditary possession (ver. le, seq.) was reckoned 
according to the amount of seed required to sow 
it properly. A field requiring a homer of barley, 
i. e., ten ephahs (Ezek. 45 : 11) containing a little 
over five and a half bushels (see on Lev. 19 : 36), 
was valued at fifty shekels. This was evidently 
the estimated Avorth of the crops of such a field 
for the whole Jubilee period. If the Jubilee 
period had partly elapsed at the time the vow 
was made, the priest allowed an abatement ac- 
cording to the time still remaining (see ver. is). 
Apparently the owner after paying his valua- 
tion continued to hold the field, but without the 
right of selling it. If he wished to redeem it 
outright he conld do so by adding a fiftli to the 



€h. XXVII.] 



LEVITICUS 



107 



19 And if he that sanctified the field will in any 
wise redeem it, then lie shall add the fifth pa?f of 
the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be 
assured to him. 

20 And if he will not redeem the field, or if he 
have sold the field to another man, it shall not be 
redeemed any more. 

21 But the field, when it goeth out in the jubile, 
•shall be holy unto the Lord, as a field devoted ; 
the possession thereof shall be the priest's. 

22 And if a man sanctify unto the Lord a field 
which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of 
his possession ; 

23 Then the priest shall reckon unto him the 
worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the 
jubile: and he shall give thine estimation in that 
day, as a holy thing unto the Lord. 

24 In the year of the jubile the field shall return 
unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to 
whom the possession of the land did belong. 

25 And all thy estimations shall be according to 
the shekel of the sanctuary : twenty gerahs shall 
be the shekel. 

26 On ly the firstling of the beasts, which should 
be the Lord's firstling, no man shall sanctify it ; 
whether it be ox, or sheep : it is the Lord's. 

27 And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall 
redeem it according to thine estimation, and shall 
add a fifth part of it thereto : or if it be not re- 
deemed, then it shall be sold according to thy 
estimation. 

28 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a 
man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath, 
both of man and beast, and of the field of his pos- 
session, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted 
thing is most holy unto the Lord. 

29 None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, 
shall be redeemed ; but shall surely be put to death. 



19 thy estimation. And if he that sanctified the 
field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add 
the fifth part of the money of thy estimation 

20 unto it, and it shall be assured to him. And if 
he will not redeem tlie field, or if he have sold 
the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed 

21 any more : but the field, when it goeth out in 
the jubile, shall be holy unto the Lord, as a field 
devoted ; the possession thereof shall be the 

22 priest's. And if he sanctify unto the Lord a field 
which he hath bought, which is not of the field of 

23 his possession ; then the priest shall reckon unto 
him the worth of thy estimation unto the year 
of jubile : and he shall give thine estimation in 

24 that day, as a holy thing unto the Lord. In the 
year of jubile the field shall return unto him of 
whom it was bought, even to him to whom the 

25 possession of the land belongeth. And all thy 
estimations shall be according to the shekel of 
the sanctuary : twenty gerahs shall be the shekel. 

26 Only the firstling among beasts, which is 
made a firstling to the Lord, no man shall sanc- 
tify it ; whether it be ox or sheep, it is the Lord's. 

27 And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall 
ransom it according to thine estimation, and 
shall add unto it the fifth part thereof : or if it be 
not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to 
thy estimation. 

28 Notwithstanding, no devoted thing, that a 
man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he 
hath, whether of man or beast, or of the field of 
his possession, shall be sold or redeemed : every 

29 devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord. None 
devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall 
be ransomed ; he shall surely be put to death. 



valuation. Indeed, if he did not pay this addi- 
tional fifth, and so bring the field back into his 
absolute possession before the Jubilee, he lost all 
right of redemption at the Jubilee and the field 
became a priestly possession like a devoted field 
(ver. 21). Or if, again, he sold his interest to 
another man during the time of his occupancy 
as tenant of a vowed field, he forfeited the right 
of redemption at the Jubilee in the same way. 

In the case of vowing a field which the per- 
son had bought (ver. 22) the estimating must be 
completed and the whole price must be paid at 
once (in that day, ver. 23)^ so as not to impair 
the original owner's right to redeem his hered- 
itary possession at any time. At the Jubilee the 
field would revert to the original owner as in 
25, : 28. 

All these estimations were to be in the official 
or sanctuary shekel, which was probably worth 
about sixty cents. 

2G, 27. Of firstlings. The firstlings of 
cattle could not be vowed, as these already be- 
longed to Jehovah (Exod. 13 : 2 ; 22 : 30). An un- 
clean beast might be redeemed, if so desired, at 
the priest's valuation with the addition of a fifth 
to the price. Thy estimation (ver. 21) — second 
person singular— is no doubt subject to the 
same explanation as is given it in ver. 12. If 
not redeemed it was to be sold. This, so far as 
related to the firstborn of an ass, was a modifi- 



cation of the earlier law (Exod. 13 : 13 ; 34 : 20) ac- 
cording to which the animal was to be redeemed 
with a lamb, or if not redeemed, to have its neck 
broken. 

28, 29. Of things devoted under a ban. 
Things devoted under a ban were originally to 
be destroyed utterly (Num. 21 : 1-3 ; josh. e : n-24; 1 
Sam. 15 : 1-21). The cherem, or ban, was a sen- 
tence of utter devotion to God ; and to make the 
thing banned subject to a privilege of redemp- 
tion would be to frustrate the object of the ban. 
From the word W^T}, cherem, was derived the 
proper name HD'^n, Charmah (see Num. 21 : s)^ a 
memorial of the circumstance that that place, 
and the whole region, on being taken by the 
Israelites, was " utterly devoted." According 
to Num. 18 : 14 (of. Ezek. 44 : 29) everything 
banned in Israel was to be the perquisite of the 
priest. Here evidently to "devote" or ban 
meant to dedicate to the sanctuary in an espe- 
cially strict way. As to the case of persons 
placed under the ban, ver. 29 is not to be taken 
as meaning that any one could arbitrarily de- 
vote one of his children or slaves to death, 
and in that case must at whatever cost perform 
his vow. Note the passive construction shall 
be devoted (ver. 29), as if by some higher au- 
thority, and also the absence of the phrase "to 
Jehovah." The verse rather means that the 
older law devoting idolaters to death (E.xod. 22 ; 



108 



LEVITICUS 



[Ch. XXVII. 



30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the 
seed of the land, or of the fiuit of the tree, is the 
Lord's: it is holy unto the Lord. 

31 And if a man will at all redeem ought of his 
tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. 

3'2 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the 
flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the 
tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. 

33 He shall not search whether it be good or bad, 
neither shall he change it : and if he change it at 
all, then both it and the change thereof shall be 
holy ; it shall not be redeemed. 

34 These are the commandments, which the Lord 
commanded Moses for the children of Israel in 
mount Sinai. 



30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the 
seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is 

31 the Lord's : it is holy unto the Lord. And if a 
man will redeem aught of his tithe, he shall add 

32 unto it the fifth part thereof. And all the tithe 
of the herd or the flock, whatsoever passeth un- 
der the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto tiie 

33 Lord. He shall not search whether it be good 
or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he 
change it at all, then both it and that for which 
it is changed shall be holy ; it shall not be re- 
deemed. 

34 These are the commandments, which the Lord 
commanded Moses for the children of Israel in 
mount Sinai. 



20; Dent. 13 : 12, seq.) was to be interpreted strictly 
and literally. 

30-33. The redemption of tithes. The 
tithes belonged to Jehovah, and were subject to 
the same rule as regards redemption as the clean 
beasts that had been vowed. The tithe of cattle, 
with the exception of the secular tithe appre- 
hended as one of the burdens of the monarchy 
(i Sam. 8 : 17), is Only mentioned in a late passage 
(2 chron. 31 : 5, 6), though there is no antecedent 



reason for supposing that it was not an early in- 
stitution. The expression passeth under the 
rod (ver. 32) refers to the manner of counting^ 
animals, which was by causing them to pass one 
by one out of an enclosure while a rod dipped 
in some pigment was held over them and made 
to touch and mark each tenth one. 

34. Subscription. This verse is added as a 
conclusion to this supplementary chapter (comp. 

26 : 46). 



\t,^.^^ , &.^. V 



M 



The Book of Numbers 



BY 

GEORGE F. GENUNG, D. D. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

TwoCoDies Received 

APR 10 1906 

Copyright Entry 

CLASS JJ XXc. No, 
COPY B. 



Copyright 1906 by the 
Ameeican Baptist Publication Society 



Published March, 1906 



3From tbe Society's own iptesc 



INTRODUCTION 



The name Numbers, by which this fourth book of the Pentateuch is generally 
known, is the title given to it in the Septuagint and Vulgate versions. This name 
was no doubt applied to the book on account of the two numberings of the people 
narrated in the first and twenty-sixth chapters, and on account of the matter of a 
statistical nature with which the book abounds. In the Hebrew Bibles it generally 
goes by its first distinctive word, "^^l?^, B'midhbar, "in the wilderness." The book 
is the history of the children of Israel from just before their departure from Sinai, 
through the period covered by their forty years' wandering in the desert, and to 
the time when, encamped in the plains of Moab opposite Jericho, with the country 
to the east of the Jordan subdued, they were ready to cross the river and undertake 
the conquest of Western Palestine. 

According to its subject-matter the book naturally divides itself into three 
parts. The first part, extending from the beginning to the tenth verse of the tenth 
chapter, might be entitled, Preparations for the Departure from Sinai ; the second 
part, from 10 : 11 to 22 : 1, relates various incidents of the journey from Sinai to 
the Steppes of Moab ; while part third is taken up with the occurrences and divine 
instructions during the sojourn in the Steppes of Moab. 

Part first is largely of a statistical and Levitical character. The first chapter 
gives an account of the census of the twelve tribes exclusive of the tribe of Levi ; 
while the second goes on to regulate their order in the camp and on the march. 
In chapter three, after a brief genealogy of Aaron, is registered the divine direc- 
tion to take the tribe of Levi for the service of the sanctuary in lieu of the first- 
born whom Jehovah claims for himself; while chapter four presents the duties of 
the Levites in detail and gives the number of those qualified for service. Chapter 
five contains laws on various subjects : a regulation excluding the leprous and un- 
clean from the camp ; a pendant to the legislation in Lev. 5 : 14, seq., defining the 
law of compensation for fraud in case the injured person is dead and has no go' el ; 
and finally an interesting ordinance prescribing the ordeal for the woman suspected 
by her husband of unfaithfulness. The sixth chapter gives the regulations for as- 
suming and completing the Nazarite vow, and ends with the formula for the priestly 
benediction. In the seventh chapter the exactly similar off*erings of the twelve 
princes of the tribes at the consecration of the tent of meeting and of the altar are 
marshaled at length in twelve identical descriptions, and at the end an isolated 
verse is inserted describing Moses' habitual communication with Jehovah in the 
tent of meeting. Chapter eight opens with an item of directions regarding the 
golden candlestick, and then narrates the consecration of the Levites, with the 
divine regulation as to their term of service. In the ninth chapter is given an 
account of the observance of the Passover at Sinai, with the provision, growing out 
of an actual case, for a sux)plemental ordinance a month later for the benefit of 

ill 



IV INTRODUCTION 

those ceremonially incapacitated to observe the festival at the proper time, and 
finally an account of the behavior of the cloud which rested over the sanctuary 
and the signals which it gave for encamping or breaking camp. The first ten verses 
of the tenth chapter bring the history and legislation at Sinai to a close by an 
ordinance regarding the construction and use of the silver trumpets employed by 
the priests for the sacred calls and alarms. 

The second part, covering a period of nearly forty years, begins at 10 : 11 
with an account of the departure of the people from Mount Sinai, the securing 
of Hobab as a guide, and the habit of the ark and of Moses, who recognized it as 
the seat of Jehovah, in directing the movements of the host. In the interesting 
eleventh chapter is narrated the murmuring of the people at Taberah and Kibroth- 
Hattaawah, the appointment of seventy elders to assist Moses, accompanied by the 
outbreak of prophecy as a symptom of awakening rehgious life in Israel, and finally 
the miraculous sending of quails to satisfy the people. Chapter twelve gives an 
account of the rebellion of Miriam and Aaron against Moses as Jehovah's prophet, 
with Miriam's punishment of leprosy. In the thirteenth chapter is given the his- 
tory of the despatch of the spies from Kadesh and their report, while the fourteenth 
records the rebellion of the people and their sentence to forty years of wandering 
in the wilderness. Chapter fifteen inserts from the priestly source a series of laws 
regarding various offerings, the account of the Sabbath-breaker and his sentence, 
and the regulation regarding memorial fringes to be worn on the garments. In the 
sixteenth chapter is narrated the formidable rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abi- 
ram ; and in chapter seventeen the subject-matter of the dispute is set at rest by 
the miraculous confirmation of the priestly prerogatives in the tribe of Levi. An- 
other insertion of priestlj'' laws in chapter eighteen gives the duties, relative posi- 
tion, and revenues of the priests and Levites, while the nineteenth chapter de- 
scribes the preparation and use of a water of purification for those defiled by con- 
tact with the dead. The twentieth chapter finds the new generation reassembled 
at Kadesh and relates the death of Miriam, the sentence of Moses and Aaron at 
the Waters of Strife, the refusal of a passage through Edom, and the death of Aaron 
at Mount Hor. Chapter 21 to 22 : 1, with various embellishments from ancient song, 
narrates the campaigns and journeyings from Mount Hor to the Steppes of Moab. 

Part third begins with the three chapters devoted to the interesting episode of 
Balaam ; the first of these, chapter twenty-two, narrating Balaam's summons to 
curse Israel and his journey to Moab, the twenty-third giving the soothsayer's first 
two discourses from the top of the rocks, and the twenty-fourth reproducing what 
might be distinctively called his prophecies under the influence of the Spirit of 
God. In the twenty-fifth chapter is narrated the idolatry and immorality of the 
people at Shittim under the enticements of the women of Moab and Midian, and 
Jehovah's promise to Phinehas, who executed his vengeance. Chapter twenty-six 
is occupied with the second census of Israel, while in the twenty-seventh the 
daughters of Zelophehad secure an inheritance among their father's brethren, 
and Moses is warned of his death and directed to appoint Joshua as his successor. 
The twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters are taken up with a list and rubric 
of the public sacrifices for the sacred year, while the thirtieth gives the law regard- 
ing the validity of vows. In chapter thirty-one is an account of the war of 



INTRODUCTION 



vengeance against Midian with, the regulation in regard to the dividing of the spoil. 
The thirty-second chapter contains an account of the allotment to the two tribes 
and a half of the territory to the east of the Jordan. In chapter thirty-three is 
inserted from a very ancient source a list of the camping-places of Israel from 
Rameses to the plains of Moab, with directions respecting the occupation of 
Canaan. The boundaries of the territory west of the Jordan are delimited in the 
thirty-fourth chapter, and the names of the men who are to divide the land are 
given. Chapter thirty-five registers the appointment of cities for the Levites and 
cities of refuge ; and finally, the short thirty-sixth chapter closes the book with an 
ordinance, growing out of the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, in regard to 
the marriage of heiresses. 

The problems regarding the date and authorship of the book of Numbers are 
problems that belong to it in common with the books of Exodus and Leviticus, and 
their discussion is simply that of the distinctive strata or aspects of legislation and 
narrative appearing in the texture of the middle books of the Pentateuch. As a 
separate book, Numbers does not stand out critically from the mass of legislation 
and narrative of which these middle books are composed. It simply goes on from 
Leviticus with little change of subject, as Leviticus goes on from Exodus. Like 
Leviticus, or for that matter all the historical books of the Old Testament, it ap- 
pears anonymously in the Hebrew, the only part of it which makes any profession 
of coming from documents written by Moses being the itinerary in chapter tlnrty- 
three. It lends itself to consideration simply as so much priestly legislation and 
so much historical narrative placed side by side in a connection which is not always 
logically obvious, and bounded on the one side by the first numbering of Israel and 
on the other by the legislative readiness to cross the Jordan and enter on the 
conquest of Western Palestine. 

Perhaps nothing needs to be said regarding the improbability that Moses pro- 
duced these books of the Pentateuch in substantially their present form that has 
not already been said in the introduction to the book of Leviticus, excepting that 
various features and peculiarities might be pointed out in the book of Numbers 
which seem to enhance that improbability still more. Apart from tradition, the 
natural and unforced impression which the reader derives from an attentive survey 
of the phenomena of statement and style is that the book is a compilation of laws 
and statistical records and ceremonial enactments very much of a piece with those 
in the latter part of Exodus and Leviticus, accompanied by a history of some out- 
standing crises and events in the wilderness life of Israel woven together from ma- 
terial derived from somewhat variant sources and wrought into its final shape long 
after the period of which it treats. How exactly these variant sources may be 
regained and mapped out by criticism may well be a matter of dispute ; but that 
there is a slow and apparently solid coming together into something like unanim- 
ity regarding the great general outlines of a documentary hypothesis of the origin 
of the Hexateuch is a fact which cannot be ignored. 

The most distinctive legislation of the book of Numbers, whose effect we should 
expect to see apparent in subsequent history, is the systematic provision for the 
Levites and the rigid fixing of their status in relation to that of the priests. In 
this book we find the Levites organized as a temple-militia, '' wholly given, " or 



vi INTRODUCTION 



"joined " to the priests, claimed by Jehovah and '' waved " as the offering of the 
children of Israel in lieu of their firstborn, and maintained by the tithes of the 
people from w^hich in turn they pay a tithe for the maintenance of Aaron the priest. 
Their three families of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari are systematically designated 
to the duty of caring for and transporting the various parts of the tabernacle ; and 
this duty is rigidly differentiated from the function of the priest, which is that of 
atoning and blessing in the name of Jehovah. The heart-burnings and jealousies 
in connection with this differentiation are reflected in the history ; and in conse- 
quence of the Levite Korah's attempt to assert priestly prerogatives for his order a 
wholesale act of judgment is performed, and memorial plates for the altar are made 
out of the stricken rebels' censers to remind the children of Israel that no stranger 
not of the seed of Aaron may approach to burn incense before Jehovah. 

Now if all these definite ecclesiastical arrangements had been enforced by 
Moses and made the model to which the organized religious life of the nation con- 
formed from their earliest history in Canaan, we should expect to see some indica- 
tions of a history developing on that basis. But when we turn to the earlier 
historical books of the Bible we see no signs of such a religious establishment. 
There is only such rudimentary organization of worship as would naturally grow up 
in a new land without any such previous legislation as that of the Pentateuch. The 
Levites, while recognized in a way as a sacred caste, are nevertheless not system- 
atically provided for, but find their home and support as they may. They do not 
seem to be distinguished from the priests, nor is there any such developed 
establishment and ritual as calls for the specialization of functions prescribed in 
Numbers. The priests are the body of men who "bear the ark " ; and this is the 
typical function which is taken generically to characterize the priestly office (1 
Kings 2 : 26). This lack of differentiation between priests and Levites also charac- 
terizes the book of Deuteronomy, where throughout the sacred tribe is designated 
as " the priests, the Levites" ; Aaron is never called a priest; the priests have 
the function of bearing the ark ; and on the other hand the Levites have the 
supreme sacerdotal privilege of blessing in the name of Jehovah. Such a radical 
difference in the point of view regarding the hierarchy between the history and 
Deuteronomy on the one hand, and the priestly legislation on the other, indicates 
not only that Numbers and Deuteronomy could hardly have originated at practi- 
cally the same time and from the same author, as the traditional view holds, but 
that all the earlier history of Israel developed in the ignorance or entire absence 
of any organic law embodying these arrangements of the Priest Code. 

This noticeable feature in Israelitish history needed to be taken account of 
here because it has had a large share in provoking the discussions and conjectures 
on which the belief in a late compilation of the Pentateuch is founded. In seek- 
ing for indications of the time when these Levitical regulations began to be en- 
forced in the nation's life, criticism has fixed upon the last nine mysterious chap- 
ters of the book of Ezekiel as very significant in the pedigree of the Priest Code. 
Among the innovations introduced by that prophet, who is regarded as the spirit- 
ual father of the Levitical tendency in Judaism, is the important enactment in 
44 : 6, seq. According to this the priests of the high places and their descendants 
are henceforth to do the menial work of the sanctuary which has hitherto been 



INTRODUCTION vii 



done by uncircumcised strangers. They lose their priestly privileges, these hence- 
forth being reserved for the sons of Zadok, that is, the offspring of the priestly 
families of Jerusalem. This demand of Ezekiel's is thought to be the root of the 
distinction, which appears in full bloom in the Priest Code, between the priests and 
the Levites. While this exilic enactment makes the Levite genetically a degraded 
priest — and the non-Zadokites were so little inclined to take up the role assigned 
them by Ezekiel that only by special measures were any Levites at all induced to 
return with Ezra (Ezra 8 : 15, seq.) — the subsequent legislation, completely formu- 
lated in Numbers, finds other grounds for their position as temple-servants, and 
introduces them to their duties as to an honorable position to which they rise from 
private life. 

The probability emerging from the comparison of details which present them- 
selves from various parts of the Old Testament appears to be : that the completed 
temple organization and ritual, including the relegation of the Levites to the posi- 
tion of subordinate helpers in the temple, did not come into force until after the 
exile ; and that in the books of Leviticus and Numbers which, availing themselves 
of ancient materials, were put into shape after that period, these priestly arrange- 
ments were ascribed to Moses through a use of legal formulas or fictions which 
was a common literary procedure among the nations of antiquity. 

The really interesting part of the book of Numbers is its narrative portion ; 
and of this it may be said, that while criticism finds it more or less composite in 
its structure, criticism can scarcely presume, in the absence of contradictory data, 
to deny its historical credibility. On the other hand the value of those stories for 
inspiration and admonition and the higher knowledge of God and truth — which is 
really history's most worthy motive for getting itself written — is a value which is 
evinced in terms of usefulness for the common man, and which is not impaired by 
a neglect to raise the question whether all these statements exactly correspond to 
happenings in an otherwise unknown past. And this introduces us to the con- 
sideration of the worth of the book of Numbers to the readers of a completed Bible. 
Whatever critics may make of Jewish history through the careful analysis and re- 
piecing together of the elements of the old literature, for the common reader of 
later times the book of Numbers always remains a single whole, which produces 
its impression in its setting in the Bible. Not for these readers is the task of re- 
constructing Israel's history on the lines demanded by scientific analysis. They 
will ever take the book as it comes, and use it for its value in the common life of 
to-day. The chemist may laboriously analyze the most beneficent of heaven's gifts 
and label it II2O, but to the thirsty it always remains plain water. In the far past 
the streams of literary tendency now learnedly designated as J and E and P may 
have produced their results as separate currents of thought and expression, but in 
the providence of God these streams came together and were united into a whole 
which only the acutest scholarship can separate into its parts ; and together they 
will remain, and will produce their unified impression, not as fragments from the 
post-exilic period or from the period of the later monarchy, but as the accepted 
history of God's dealings with the children of Israel while they were on their way 
from Egypt to the Promised Land. If the book as we have it is composite, and if 
the mission which God has ordained for it is the de facto indication of his eternal 



▼iii I^'TEODrCTIOX 



purpose, then tiie divine inspiration by -wiiich it. vrith ail Scriptiue. is given must 
be taken as applying to the authors and redactors vrho have ntted it in its 
completed form to inspire and teach the world. 

While the great outstanding event of Exodus, after the deliverance from Egypt 
and the Bed Sea, is the giving of the Law, and the local center of Israel's history 
is Sinai, here in Numbers the local center is Kadesh. and the pivotal event of the 
historj' is the refusal to enter the Promised Land, with the sentence to forty years' 
wandering in the wilderness. In Exodus the perversity of the nation was espe- 
cially manifested by their lapse into idolatry in making the golden cal^ while in 
If umbers it is their unbelief in turning back from the borders of Canaan. Full of 
the impressions derived from the book of Exodus, Stephen sums up the sin and 
reprobation of Israel in that they "made a calf in those days" and were given 
over to serve the host of heaven ; the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, on the 
other hand, deriving spiritual admonition from the book of Numbers, reminds the 
ChristLan church of that whole generation who hardened their hearts in the day 
ef provocation so that God swore in his wrath that they should not enter into 
his rest. That act of unbeUef and its punishment bnlks large in the memory of 
Israel's teachers. The one predominant spiritual le^on for which the history in 
the book of Numbers stands in the consciousness of psalmist and apostle is that a 
nation may be undone through unbelief even though it has been ushered on a 
care^ of promise with the most miracnlous tokens of special divine fevor. 

This critical event in Israers history, with its spiritual lesson, may be taken as 
the great outstanding feature by which the book of Numbers is individualized. But 
merely to individualize the book and assign it to its place in the catalogue of les- 
sons which we credit Grod with having taught mankind, is but the b^inning of that 
knowledge and profit which a reverent following of its utterances with a sympa- 
thetic attention and a quickened imagination may be expected to yield. If we 
accord to the book the simple treatment of reading it, in the trie sense of that 
word, that is, committing ourselves :: 1:5 iirrent and sharing 1:5 z izt of view, as 
every author seeks to make his readers do — we shall find in the book of Numbers, 
after we have passed the rather forbidding statistical vestibule of its opening chap- 
ters, a wealth of instruction and a glow of human interest such as belongs to 
genuine biography. 

We have the story of a people wandering through a desert, thrown daily upon 
immediate divine guidance given in the pillar of cloud and of fire, and daily intro- 
duced to a widening knowledge of Jehovah their infinite Saviour. Their manifold 
benefits and glimpses of truth and perversities will catch the attention of readers 
with varying emphasis according to that phase of human life in which those read- 
ers are interested. To the prophet, deep in his controversy with the idolatry of his 
time, that history was a secret apostasy from Jehovah and a cherishing of images 
(Amos 5 : 25, seq.). To the psalmist it was a life-long tempting of God as at Mas- 
sah and Meribah, so that the divine estimate of them was of a people that do err 
in their heart and have not known Jehovah's ways (Ps. 95 : 8-11). The attention 
of Paul was held by their overthrow in the wilderness, by their greed at Elibroth- 
Hattaawah, by their idolatry at Sinai, by their impurity at Abel-Shittim, and by 
their experience with the fiery serpents (see 1 Cor. 10 : 5-9). To Jude, sorely vexed 



INTKODUCTION ix 



by ignorant railers, the venality of Balaam and the ambition of Korah furnish types 
of the evils of his time (Jude 11) ; while the Judaizing author of the Apocalypse 
finds in the liberal teachings of his region a resemblance to that counsel of Balaam 
by which the children of Israel were beguiled into eating things sacrificed to idols 
(Rev. 2 : 14). Our Lord, full of generous enthusiasm for the salvation of the lost, 
draws the most wonderful and eff'ective of illustrations from the serpent lifted up in 
the wilderness (John 3 : 14, 15). So the long line of biblical teachers, casting their 
eye over Israel's past, find in this book of Numbers a veritable storehouse of sug- 
gestion and admonition as the interests of their respective circles fall to be consid- 
ered in the light of history. And we in our turn may learn still other lessons of 
intense interest to the student of human nature as we follow attentively the glow- 
ing anticipations, the misunderstandings and perversities of that people in those 
days of their discipline and spiritual awakening. 

We may take the course of the story, and even of the priest-legislation to some 
degree, as following the unfolding of the religious spirit in the nation as that re- 
sponded to the influences brought to bear upon it. While the children of Israel 
were in the camp, mainly subjected to regulations looking toward order and purity 
imposed upon them by superior authority, there was not naturally so much forth- 
putting of spontaneous religious enthusiasm on the part of the lay multitude. 
They were having everything thought out and planned for them. Such acts of 
religious devotion and love as emanated from their own initiative were acts of 
loyalty evinced in off*erings for the tabernacle and the altar, or vows expressive 
of the impulse for an extra sanctity such as might distinguish the devoted from 
the common life. The law of the Nazarite, while perhaps belonging to a later 
time, no doubt took cognizance of a practice that grew up with that impulse for 
purity and separateness which was the heart of the earlier Levitical religion. So 
even in the priest-legislation of the book of Numbers there is a certain congruity 
with the development of religion in the nation. While the people are lying at 
Sinai the regulations recorded are for the organization and policing of the camp, or 
for the fixing of the priest's share in unsatisfied claims, or defining his function as 
the censor of unfaithfulness in the family. Yet as the time grows riper the legis- 
lation and feeling grow more and more forward-looking ; the nation's anticipations 
are becoming more adjusted to the breaking up of the camp and the living on the 
road. Levites are organized principally to carry the tabernacle. By the Passover 
and its supplemental ordinance the congregation renews its consciousness as a sac- 
ramental host. The silver trumpets are fashioned, and their signals for raising the 
camp, section by section, to its feet are defined. The movements of the cloud be- 
come associated with Jehovah's will in regard to the people's advance, and antici- 
pation is eagerly fixed on the majestic lifting of that symbol of the divine presence 
which has so long overshadowed the tabernacle. 

Finally the glad sign of God's command to move was seen in the heavens ; the 
cloud was lifted up from over the sanctuary. Amid all the bustle of taking down 
the tabernacle and striking camp — men, women, and children falling into place in 
the line and catching wondering glimpses of the mysterious ark which seemed to 
be their palladium and guide — there are the signs running through the narrative 
of the gladdest, most expansive anticipations and the intensest feeling. Moses no 



INTRODUCTION 



doubt expressed the universal fervor and assurance when he said in recommending 
Israel's companionship to Hobab, "We will do thee good ; for Jehovah hath spoken 
good concerning Israel." It was a high pitch of religious elevation, a deep sense 
of communion with Jehovah, from which could come forth that majestic invoca- 
tion in the presence of the ark, ' ' Rise up, O Jehovah, and let thine enemies be 
scattered ; and let them that hate thee flee before thee " ; '' Return, Jehovah, 
unto the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel." 

The revulsion from the most joyous elation is the intensest disappointment and 
depression. The mixed multitude, unthrilled by the larger joys of the promised 
rest, soon found intolerable hardship in the deprivations of a roving life, and their 
blatant dissatisfaction ran like a contagion through the camp. It must have been 
a tense feeling, just ready to break, which at the first touch of disappointment 
shattered itself into a perfect tempest of hysterical grief, with every man weeping 
at the door of his tent. In close association with that high emotional tension came 
the appointment of the seventy elders to share Moses' spirit, and their ecstatic 
prophesying as the greatness and glory of God came before their clarified vision. 
Out of that fervency of widespread faith came the prophetic impulse that pene- 
trated to the camp and inspired Eldad and Medad with a power of utterance which 
Moses could wish universal. The being on the move — the being penetrated with 
the joys of the future — was bearing its fruit. It was a kind of pentecostal out- 
pouring in the Jewish church. In contrast to the life of law, which is yielding its 
legitimate fruit of restraint and loyalty and the passion for separateness, we begin 
to see something of the life of faith, which is already showing itself strong to 
awaken the spirit and call forth conquering enthusiasm. 

But the new life of the Spirit has its characteristic problems and set-backs ; 
and these are the same in kind as those which attend all outbreaking of spontane- 
ous spiritual power in the midst of a constituency too worldly to give it an intelli- 
gent reception. Prophetic power, which to the true insight of Moses was ideally an 
endowment for all, was apprehended by Joshua in his zeal for the official and me- 
chanical as a thing to be repressed or confined in tactical bounds ; just as the free 
apostolic Christianity, which at first blossomed out in gifts of the Spirit, was eventu- 
ally tamed down under the dogmatic regulation of the Catholic Church. To Miriam 
and Aaron that gift of rapturous speaking, valued for its distinction rather than for 
its realization of a higher life, presented itself as a thing which it was possible to make 
general through ambition and successful striving. To their imperfectly reverent 
contention Jehovah vouchsafes an answer, describing prophecy as a divine revela- 
tion, but implying that its highest manifestations, at present monopolized by Moses, 
are those which have most of the regulative and prosaically useful, and least of the 
ecstatic and uncontrollable and visionary. Thus from this early indication of atten- 
tion given to the nature of Israel's distinctive talent of prophecy we observe 
embedded deep in Hebrew thought the germ of that principle, so well fitted to 
curb extravagancies and keep inspired instruction sane and useful, that the spirit 
of the prophets is subject to the prophets. 

But not only is this fairest blossom of the religion of faith, ihis marvelous 
endowment of prophecy, made the object of attention and the subject of divine 
instruction, but there are evidences that thought has been expended and conclu- 



INTRODUCTION xi 



sions reached as to the ideal nature of the priesthood. We have already seen that 
Levitism did not succeed in confining the higher prerogatives of the priesthood, 
the privilege of drawing nigh to the immediate presence of God, to a narrow class 
without a considerable convulsion in the nation of Israel. But the principle which 
Korah found so widely accepted that he could make it a war-cry in his demagogic 
strike for his own advancement was that ''all the congregation are holy, every one 
of them, and Jehovah is among them." Here we have the beginning of that con- 
sciousness in Israel, so uplifting for the spiritual, that they are a kingdom of 
priests and a holy nation (Exod. 19 : 6) ; but, like the gift of prophecy, we see this 
ideal priestly privilege taken in hand by unspiritual leaders and debased to a thing 
for the play of ambition and contention. It was not the principle of a universal 
access to God which was condemned in the divine judgment on Korah and his com- 
pany, but the impious employment of it as a pretext in that powerful leader's con- 
tention for his own selfish ends. As an ideal principle indeed, it was not yet ready 
to come forth and establish itself by a concrete and tangible molding of human 
institutions. This would be to sweep away all the barriers of the holy place and 
degrade the reverend sacredness of the temple to the common level. Korah him- 
self did not seriously contemplate any such outcome of his high assertions. Levit- 
ism, the narrow restriction of the priestly privilege, gained a momentous victory ; 
and no doubt it was better so, for God had his use for it in the safeguarding and 
development of religion in Israel. The distinction between the sacred and the 
secular cannot safely be obliterated until men are heavenly minded enough to level 
up into the sacred instead of leveling down into the secular. But the principle of a 
universal priesthood lay embedded in the religious consciousness as an ideal, now and 
then finding expression in the rapt utterance of psalmist or prophet, but awaiting 
its time to come to the birth in the working life of the church, when our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by his off*ering of himself once for all, and his eternal rending of the veil, 
pronounced the divine sentence on all human schemes for barring the common 
approach to the Infinite, and proclaimed immediate access to the holiest place for 
every one who will draw nigh to God. 

Now criticism will no doubt assert that these ideas regarding the nature of 
prophecy and priesthood belong to a far later and maturer epoch than the period 
of the journey through the wilderness, and will insist on stirring up the materials 
anew and concocting a religious history of Israel which shall be far other in its 
sequence than what it appears upon its face. With this assertion and demand we 
have no contention ; when our quest is for the same kind of knowledge for which 
these scholars are delving we shall no doubt consider and appraise their conclu- 
sions. But meanwhile we are pointing out what a lifelikeness and dramatic 
sequence the plain book of Numbers in its setting in a completed Bible exhibits. 
We are introducing the book to the common reader, and inviting him to see those 
things of eternal interest and value which that book has from time immemorial been 
placing within his reach. Let him insist on his right to read and enjoy and profit, 
undisturbed by the question whether he is reading contemporaneously written his- 
tory or not. He is at least reading a marvelous narration of a divine guidance of 
Israel through their forty years' wandering in the desert ; and no recasting of the his- 
tory or resetting as to its age can make the book any more inspiring or spiritually 



xii INTRODUCTION 



helpful. These things happened unto them as types, and they were written for 
our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come. 

The Bible is a live book. That which is alive moves. To get the benefit of 
companionship with that which is alive and moving we must accompany it and 
move along with it. This is what true reading is — the entering into and moving 
with the mind of the author, who would transfer us to his point of view and place 
truth before us. We may dissect and learn the anatomy of the book also ; and this 
knowledge is interesting in its sphere. The commentary here placed before the 
reader is not without its exhibitions of the results of critical dissection. But we 
dissect only the dead body ; and we must not think that dissection of the dead can 
give the same results as communion with the living. May the day be far dis- 
tant when the Bible shall become for Western Christendom only a cadaver, the 
prey of dissection and analysis and criticism, a thing to be endlessly studied about, 
but never to be studied or communed with in its own living body and spirit. It 
will do the full good which its divine Inspirer intended only as it is a live book, a 
speaking companion, approached and appreciated through that naive power to 
merge the willing mind in its current of thought and imagery which the coldly 
critical habit can only do us infinite harm by taking away. Thus read and appre- 
ciated, not the least inspiring and vitally helpful of the sixty-six books in our canon 
will be found to be the divinely given book of Numbers. 



NUMBERS 



CHAPTEE I. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilder- 
ness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, 
on the first day of the second month, in the second 
year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, 
saying, 

2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the 
children of Israel, after their families, by the house 
of their fathers, with the number of their names, 
every male by their polls ; 

3 From twenty years old and upward, all that 
are able to go forth to war in Israel : thou and 
Aaron shall number them by their armies. 

4 And with you there shall be a man of every 
tribe ; every one head of the house of his fathers. 

5 And these are the names of the men that shall 
stand with you : of the tribe o/ Reuben ; Elizur the 
son of Shedeur. 

6 Of Simeon ; Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 

7 Of Judah ; Nahshon the son of Amminadab. 

8 Of Issachar ; Nethaneel the son of Zuar. 

9 Of Zebulun ; Eliab the son of Helon. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilder- 
ness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first 
day of the second mouth, in the second year 
after they were come out of the land of Egypt, 

2 saying. Take ye the sum of all the congregation 
of the children of Israel, by their families, by 
their fathers' houses, according to the number 

3 of the names, every male, by their polls ; from 
twenty years old and upward, all that are able 
to go forth to war in Israel, thou and Aarou 

4 shall number them by their hosts. And with 
you there shall be a man of every tribe ; every 

5 one head of his fathers' house. And these are 
the names of the men that shall stand with you : 

6 of Reuben ; Elizur the son of Shedeur. Of 
Simeon ; Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 

7 Of Judah ; Nahshon the son of Amminadab. 
8, 9 Of Issachar ; Nethanel the son of Zuar. Of 



PAET FIEST. 



PREPAEATIONS FOR THE DEPARTURE FROM SINAI, 
CHAPTERS 1 TO 10 : 10. 



The book of Numbers is more composite in its 
structure than the book of Leviticus, which ap- 
pears to be almost solely derived from the priest- 
legislation, including the distinct stratum known 
as the Law of Holiness. The structure of Num- 
bers more nearly resembles that of Exodus, 
having passages woven in from the JE docu- 
ment. The latter part of the book shows signs 
here and there of a still more composite struc- 
ture. Some brief passages are quoted from what 
is probably the very oldest Hebrew literature 
extant, as, for instance, the obscure fragment 
from the " Book of the Wars of Jehovah," in 
21 : 14, and perhaps also the " Well Song " and 
the taunting Proverb song in the same chapter 
(ver. n, 18, 27-30). The Balaam discourses, on 
the other hand (23 : 7-10, 18-24; 24:3-9,15-24), are 
quite generally regarded by critics as reflecting 
a national enthusiasm and sense of victorious 
greatness such as came to the nation later, say 
after the victories of David. All this first part, 
however, with the additional verses to 10 : 28, 
appears to be derived from P, and to have for 
its main topic the disposition of the camp and 
the duties of the Levites. The preparation for 
the journey from Sinai is represented as occu- 
pying twenty days (comp. 1 : 1 with 10 : 11). 



Chap. 1. The census of the twelve 

TRIBES EXCLUSIVE OP THE TRIBE OF LEVI. 

1-19. The command to take the census is given 
in the tent of meeting. In like manner the 
commands of the book of Leviticus purport to 
have been spoken out of the tent of meeting (see 
Lev. 1 : 1). 1, The first day of the second 
month. It is now one month since the taber- 
nacle was set up (see Exod. 40 : 2, 17), and the 
revelation of the book of Leviticus is repre- 
sented as having been given in that time, that 
is, after the tent of meeting was completed and 
while the children of Israel were still at Sinai 

(see Lev. 1:1; 26 : 46 ; 27 : 34). 

This census appears to have been for civil and 
military purposes and to be little more than a 
registering according to tribes and families of 
results already obtained in connection with the 
levying of the half-shekel sanctuary tax nine 

months before (Exod. so : ll seq. ; 38 : 25-28), No 

change in the total number is noted (cf. ver. 46 
with Exod. 38 : 26), thougli Considerable chaugcs, by 
death and by coming of age, could not fail to 
have occurred in three-quarters of a year in a 
population of over six hundred thousand adult 
males. If no new enumeration was made but 
only the making out of a muster roll by tribes 

13 



14 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. I. 



10 Of the children of Joseph : of Ephraim ; Elish- 
ama the sou of Ammihud : of Manasseh ; Gamaliel 
the son of Pedahzur. 

11 Of Benjamin ; Abidan the son of Gideoni. 

12 Of Dan ; Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. 

13 Of Asher ; Pagiel the son of Ocran. 

14 Of Gad ; Eliasaph the son of Deuel. 

15 Of Naphtali ; Ahira the son of Enan. 

16 These were the renowned of the congregation, 
princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thou- 
sands in Israel. 

17 And Moses and Aaron took these men which 
are expressed by their names : 

18 And they assembled all the congregation 
together on the first day of the second month, and 
they declared their pedigrees after their families, 
by the house of their fathers, according to the 
number of the names, from twenty years old and 
upward, by their polls. 

19 As the Lord commanded Moses, so he num- 
bered them in the wilderness of Sinai. 

20 And the children of Reuben, Israel's eldest 
son, by their generations, after their families, by 
the house of their fathers, according lo the number 
of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go forth 
to war ; 

21 Those that were numbered of them, even of the 
tribe of Reuben, were forty and six thousand and 
five hundred. 

22 Of the children of Simeon, by their genera- 
tions, after their families, by the house of their 
fathers, those that were numbered of them, accord- 
ing to the number of the names, by their polls, 
every male from twenty years old and upward, all 
that were able to go forth to war ; 

23 Those that were numbered of them, even of 
the tribe of Simeon, were fifty and nine thousand 
and three hundred. 

24 Of the children of Gad, by their generations, 
after their families, by the house of their fathers, 
according to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go forth 
to war ; 

25 Those that were numbered of them, even of the 
tribe of Gad, were forty and five thousand six hun- 
dred and fifty. 

26 Of the children of Judah, by their genera- 
tions, after their families, by the house of their 
fathers, according to the number of the names, 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were 
able to go forth to war ; 

27 Those that were numbered of them, even of the 
tribe of .ludah, xoere threescore and fourteen thou- 
sand and six hundred. 

28 Of the children of Issachar, by their genera- 
tions, after their families, by the house of their 
fathers, according to the number of the names, 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were 
able to go forth to war ; 



and families, it may easily have been a matter 
of only a day's work, as seems to he implied in 
ver. 18, as the public part of this day's work 
would be only the " declaring " or reporting of 
data already made up in the tribal organizations. 
The matter is placed in the hands of tribal heads 
instead of in those of the Levites, under whom 
the half-shekel assessment was made. 

IG. The men who were employed by Moses 
and Aaron to assist in the census are desig- 
nated as called men of the congregation — i. e. 
men who were called to congregational assem- 
blies as representatives of their tribes — princes 
of the tribes of their fathers, heads of 
the thousands in Israel. They may have 



10 Zebulun ; Eliab the son of Helon. Of the chil- 
dren of Joseph : of Ephraim ; Elishama the son 
of Ammihud : of Manasseh ; Gamaliel the son 

11 of Pedahzur. Of Benjamin ; Abidan the son of 

12 Gideoni. Of Dan ; Ahiezer the son of Ammi- 

13 shaddai. Of Asher; Pagiel the son of Ochran. 
14, 15 Of Gad ; Eliasaph the son of Deuel. Of 

16 Naphtali ; Ahira the son of Enan. These are 
they that were called of the congregation, the 
princes of the tribes of their fathers ; they were 

17 the heads of the thousands of Israel. And Moses 
and Aaron took these men which are expressed 

18 by name : and they assembled all the congrega- 
tion together on the first day of the second 
month, and they declared their pedigrees after 
their families, by their fathers' houses, accord- 
ing to the number of the names, from twenty 

19 years old and upward, by their ptolls. As the 
Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them 
in the wilderness of Sinai. 

20 And the children of Reuben, Israel's firstborn, 
their generations, by their families, by their 
fathers' houses, according to the number of the 
names, by their polls, every male from twenty 
years old'and upward, ail that were able to go 

21 forth to war ; those that were numbered of them, 
of the tribe of Reuben, were forty and six thou- 
sand and five hundred. 

22 Of the children of Simeon, their generations, 
by their families, by their fathers' houses, those 
that were numbered thereof, according to the 
number of the names, by their polls, every male 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were 

23 able to go forth to war ; those that were num- 
bered of them, of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty 
and nine thousand and three hundred. 

24 Of the children of Gad, their generations, by 
their families, by their fathers' houses, according 
to the number of the names, from twenty years 
old and upward, all that were able to go forth to 

25 war ; those that were numbered of them, of the 
tribe of Gad, were forty and five thousand six 
hundred and fifty. 

26 Of the children of Judah, their generations, 
by their families, by their fathers' houses, accord- 
ing to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go 

27 forth to war ; those that were numbered of them, 
of the tribe of Judah, were threescore and four- 
teen thousand and six hundred. 

28 Of the children of Issachar, their generations, 
by their families, by their fathers' houses, accord- 
ing to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go 



been the rulers of thousands suggested by Jethro 
as associated judges with Moses in settling dis- 
putes (see Exod. 18 : 21). It is to be notcd that the 
Deuteronomist represents the appointment of 
judges as taking place at this time, in connec- 
tion with the divine command to mobilize the 
nation, instead of at the previous time apparently 
indicated in Exodus (see oeut. i :9-i4). 

One of these men, Nahshon (ver. 7), was a 
brother-in-law of Aaron (Exod. e : 23) and ances- 
tor of David, and one, Elishama (^er. 10), was 
grandfather of Joshua (1 Chron. 7 : 26, 27). 

20-46. The numbering. In connection with 
the peculiar identity of numerical results, 
already noted, with those of the half-shekel 



Ch. I.] 



NUMBERS 



15 



29 Those that were numbered of them, even of 
the tribe of Issachar, were fifty and four thousand 
and four hundred. 

30 Of the children of Zebulun, by their genera- 
tions, after their families, by the house of their 
fathers, according to the number of the names, 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were 
able to go forth to war ; 

31 Those that were numbered of them, even of 
the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty and seven thousand 
and four hundred. 

32 Of the children of Joseph, namely, of the chil- 
dren of Ephraim, by their generations, after their 
families, by the house of their fathers, according 
to the num'ber of the names, from twenty years old 
and upward, all that were able to go forth to war ; 

33 Those that were numbered of them, even of 
the tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand and five 
hundred. 

34 Of the children of Manasseh, by their genera- 
tions, after their families, by the house of their 
fathers, according to the number of the names, 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were 
able to go forth to war ; 

35 Those that were numbered of them, even of 
the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty and two thousand 
and two hundred. 

36 Of the children of Benjamin, by their genera- 
tions, after their families, by the house of their 
fathers, according to the number of the names, 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were 
able to go forth to war ; 

37 Those that were numbered of them, even of 
the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty and five thousand 
and four hundred. 

38 Of the children of Dan, by their generations, 
after their families, by the house of their fathers, 
according to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go forth 
to war ; 

39 Those that were numbered of them, even of 
the tribe of Dan, were threescore and two thousand 
and seven hundred. 

40 Of the children of Asher, by their generations, 
after their families, by the house of their fathers, 
according to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go forth 
to war ; 

41 Those that were numbered of them, even of 
the tribe of Asher, were forty and one thousand and 
five hundred. 

42 Of the children of Naphtali, throughout their 
generations, after their families, by the house of 
their fathers, according to the number of the names, 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were 
able to go forth to war ; 

43 Those that were numbered of them, even of 
the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty and three thousand 
and four hundred. 

44 These are those that were numbered, which 
Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of 
Israel, being twelve men : each one was for the 
house of his fathers. 

45 So were all those that were numbered of the 
children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were 
able to go forth to war in Israel ; 

46 Even all they that were numbered were six 
hundred thousand and three thousand and five 
hundred and fifty. 



29 forth to war ; those that were numbered of them, 
of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty and four 
thousand and four hundred. 

30 Of the children of Zebulun, their generations, 
by their families, by their fathers' houses, accord- 
ing to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go 

31 forth to war ; those that were numbered of them, 
of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty and seven 
thousand and four hundred. 

32 Of the children of Joseph, namely, of the chil- 
dren of Ephraim, their generations, by their 
families, by their fathers' houses, according to 
the number of the names, from twenty years old 
and upward, all that were able to go forth to 

33 war ; those that were numbered of them, of the 
tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand and five 
hundred. 

34 Of the children of Manasseh, their genera- 
tions, by their families, by their fathers' houses, 
according to the number of the names, from 
twenty years old and upward, all that were able 

35 to go forth to war ; those that were numbered of 
them, of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty and 
two thousand and two hundred. 

36 Of the children of Benj amin, their generations, 
by their families, by their fatliers' houses, accord- 
ing to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go 

37 forth to war ; those that were numbered of 
them, of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty and 
five thousand and four hundred. 

38 Of the children of Dan, their generations, by 
their families, by their fathers' houses, accord- 
ing to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go 

39 forth to war ; those that were numbered of them, 
of the tribe of Dan, were threescore and two 
thousand and seven hundred. 

40 Of the children of Asher, their generations, by 
their families, by their fathers' houses, accord- 
ing to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go 

41 forth to war; those that were numbered of 
them, of the tribe of Asher, were forty and one 
thousand and five hundred. 

42 Of the children of Naphtali, their generations, 
by their families, by their fathers' houses, accord- 
ing to the number of the names, from twenty 
years old and upward, all that were able to go 

43 forth to war ; those that were numbered of them, 
of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty and three 
thousand and four hundred. 

44 These are they that were numbered, which 
Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of 
Israel, being twelve men: they were each one for 

45 his fathers' house. Po all thev that were numbered 
of the children of Israel by their fathers' houses, 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were 

46 able to go forth to war in Israel ; even all they 
that were numbered were six hundred thousand 
and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. 



assessment, it is to be observed that minute exact- 
ness does not appear to be aimed at. The footing 
of each of the tribal enumerations is made up 
according to some system of round numbers 
which gives even hundreds for each of the tribes 
except the tribe of Gad (ver. 25), and this tribe 
sums up even half-hundreds. Attempts to ac- 
count for this reckoning by round numbers as 



the result of the classification of the nation for 
the administration of justice into thousands, 
hundreds, fifties, and tens (Exod. is :25)^ or as a 
military enumeration by fifties, or as a neglect- 
ing of supernumerary units by way of allowing 
for shrinkage in the number of effectives for 
war through physical disability, are purely 
conjectural. 



16 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. II. 



47 But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers 
were not numbered among them. 

48 For the Lord had spoken unto Moses, saying, 

49 Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, 
neither take the sum of them among the children 
of Israel : 

50 But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the 
tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels 
thereof, and over all things that belong to it : they 
shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels there- 
of ; and they shall minister unto it, and shall en- 
camp round about the tabernacle. 

51 And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the 
Levites shall take it down : and when the taber- 
nacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: 
and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to 
death. 

52 And the children of Israel shall pitch their 
tents, every man by his own camp, and every man 
by his own standard, throughout their hosts. 

53 But the Levites shall pitch round about the 
tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath 
upon the congregation of the children of Israel : 
and the Levites shall keep the charge of the taber- 
nacle of testimony. 

54 And the children of Israel did according to 
all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they. 



47 But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers 

48 were not numbered among them. For the Lord 

49 spake unto Moses, saying, Oulv the tribe of Levi 
thou Shalt not number, neither shalt thou take 
the sum of them among the children of Israel : 

50 but appoint thou the Levites over the tabernacle 
of the testimony, and over all the furniture 
thereof, and over all that belongeth to it : they 
shall bear the tabernacle, and all the furniture 
thereof ; and they shall minister unto it, and 

51 shall encamp round about the tabernacle. And 
when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites 
shall take it down : and when the tabernacle is 
to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up : and 
the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to 

52 death. And the children of Israel shall pitch 
their tents, every man by his own camp, and 
every man by his own standard, according to 

53 their hosts. But the Levites shall pitch round 
about the tabernacle of the testimony, that there 
be no wrath upon the congregation of the chil- 
dren of Israel : and the Levites shall keep the 

54 charge of the tabernacle of the testimony. Thus 
did the children of Israel ; according to all that 
the Lord commanded Moses, so did they. 



CHAPTER II. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 
Aaron, saying, 

2 Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch 
by his own standard, with the ensign of their 
father's house : far off about the tabernacle of the 
congregation shall they pitch. 

3 And on the east side toward the rising of the 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 

2 Aaron, saying. The children of Israel shall pitch 
every man by his own standard, with the en- 
signs of their fathers' houses : over against the 
tent of meeting shall they pitch round about. 

3 And those that pitch on the east side toward the 



According to the usual proportion of adult 
males to the whole population, the total number 
of the children of Israel in the wilderness was 
something over two millions. 

47-54. The Levites. The Levites here 
means the whole tribe, including the priests. 
The setting apart of the tribe of Levi for the 
care of the tabernacle and the specific duties of 
each of the three subdivisions of the tribe in 
connection with its taking down, its setting up, 
and its transportation, are related in chap. 3 
and 4. It is usually the way of P to use the 
term "Levites" in the sense of these subordi- 
nate helpers in the sanctuary alone, exclusive 
of the priests, and this difierentiation of Levites 
from priests is thought to mark a later arrange- 
ment than that of the times of Deuteronomy. 
Here, however, the whole tribe is obviously 
meant. The Levites are not mustered among 
those liable to military duty because they are 
devoted to the tabernacle, and their place in the 
camp is in its immediate vicinity. They are 
not only to have the exclusive right of handling 
the sacred things (ver. 5i) but by their proximity 
to the sanctuary they also act as a guard to pre- 
vent such careless profanations as might bring 
down the wrath of God on the congregation 

(ver. 53). 



Chap. 2. Oeder of the tribes in the 

CAMP AND ON THE MARCH. 1. The WOrd 



standard, /J'H., degel, designates the conspicu- 
ous object, probably waving flag, to which each 
of the four camps was to rally, while the en- 
sign, or sign, mi< 'oth, was the distinguishing 
mark or badge of the tribe or family. The four 
standards, while each constituting the rallying 
sign for the three tribes composing its camp, 
were probably identical with the standards of 
the leading or naming tribes in their respective 
groups. Thus the camp of Judah would rally 
around the standard of the tribe of Judah ; and 
so also for the camps of Eeuben, Ephraim, and 
Dan. Eabbinic tradition has associated these 
standards with the four cherubic forms of Eze- 
kiel's vision (Ezek. i = lo), making the emblem of 
Judah the lion in accordance with Gen. 49 : 9, 
that of Eeuben the head of a man, because he 
was the firstborn or head, that of Ephraim the 
hull, as suggested by Deut. 33 : 17, and that of 
Dan the eagle as the greatest enemy of the ser- 
pent (cf. Gen. 49 : 17). 2. Far off, rather, over 
against, i. e., fronting the tabernacle, though at 
a sufficient interval to allow of the camp of the 
Levites between it and the tent of meeting. In 
Joshua's line of march the interval between the 
nearest tribe and the ark was two thousand 

cubits (see Josh. 3:4). 

3-34. The style of these first chapters is 
very difiuse. This second chapter repeats all 
the numbers given in chap. 1, and all the names 
of the tribal princes, these being first mentioned 



Ch. Ill] 



NUMBERS 



17 



sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Ju- 
dah pitch throughout their armies : and Nahshon 
the son of Amminadab shall be captain of the chil- 
dren of Judah. 

4 And his host, and those that were numbered of 
them, wer-e threescore and fourteen thousand and 
six hundred. 

5 And those that do pitch next unto him shall be 
the tribe of Issachar: and Nethaneel the son of 
Zuar shall be captain of the children of Issachar. 

6 And his host, and those that were numbered 
thereof, were fifty and four thousand and four 
hundred. 

7 Then the tribe of Zebulun : and Eliab the son 
of Helon shall be captain of the children of Zebulun. 

8 And his host, and those that were numbered 
thereof, were fifty and seven thousand and four 
hundred. 

9 All that were numbered in the camp of Judah 
were an hundred thousand and fourscore thousand 
and six thousand and four hundred, throughout 
their armies. These shall first set forth. 

10 On the south side shall be the standard of the 
camp of Reuben according to their armies : and 
the captain of the children of Reuben shall be 
Elizur the son of Shedeur. 

11 And his host, and those that were numbered 
thereof, were forty and six thousand and five 
hundred. 

12 And those which pitch by him shall be the 
tribe of Simeon : and the captain of the children of 
Simeon shall be Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 

13 And his host, and those that were numbered 
of them, were fifty and nine thousand and three 
hundred. 

14 Then the tribe of Gad : and the captain of the 
sons of Gad shall be Eliasaph the son of Reuel. 

15 And his host, and those that were numbered 
of them, were forty and five thousand and six hun- 
dred and fifty. 

16 All that were numbered in the camp of Reu- 
ben were an hundred thousand and fifty and one 
thousand and four hundred and fifty, throughout 
their armies. And they shall set forth in the second 
rank. 

17 Then the tabernacle of the congregation shall 
set forward with the camp of the Levites in the midst 
of the camp: as they encamp, so shall they set 
forward, every man in his place by their standards. 

18 On the west side shall be the standard of the 
camp of Ephraim according to their armies : and 
the captain of the sons of Ephraim shallbe Elishama 
the son of Ammihud. 

19 And his host, and those that were numbered 
of them, were forty thousand and five hundred. 

20 And by him shall be the tribe of Manasseh : 
and the captain of the children of Manasseh shall 
be Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 

21 And his host, and those that were numbered 
of them, were thirty and two thousand and two 
hundred. 

22 Then the tribe of Benjamin : and the captain 
of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of 
Gideoni. 

23 And his host, and those that were numbered 
of them, were thirty and five thousand and four 
hundred. 

24 All that were numbered of the camp of 
Ephraim were an hundred thousand and eight thou- 
sand and an hundred, throughout their armies. 
And they shall go forward in the third rank. 



sunrising shall be they of the standard of the 
camp of Judah, according to their hosts : and 
the prince of the children of Judah shall be 

4 Nahshon the son of Amminadab. And his host, 
and those that were numbered of them, were 
threescore and fourteen thousand and six hun- 

5 dred. And those that pitch next unto him shall 
be the tribe of Issachar : and the prince of the 
children of Issachar shall be Nethanel the son 

6 of Zuar: and his host, and those that were num- 
bered thereof, were fifty and four thousand and 

7 four hundred : and the tribe of Zebulun : and 
the prince of the children of Zebulun shall be 

8 Eliab the son of Helon : and his host, and those 
that were numbered thereof, were fifty and 

9 seven thousand and four hundred. All that 
were numbered of the camp of Judah were an 
hundred thousand and fourscore thousand and 
six thousand and four hundred, according to 
their hosts. They shall set forth first. 

10 On the south side shall be the standard of the 
camp of Reuben according to their hosts : and 
the prince of the children of Reuben shall be 

11 Elizur the son of Shedeur. And his host, and 
those that were numbered thereof, were forty 

12 and six thousand and five hundred. And 
those that pitch next unto him shall be the 
tribe of Simeon : and the prince of the children 
of Simeon shall be Shelumiel the son of Zuri- 

13 shaddai : and his host, and those that were 
numbered of them, were fifty and nine thou- 

14 sand and three hundred : and the tribe of Gad : 
and the prince of the children of Gad shall be 

15 Eliasaph the son of Reuel : and his host, and 
those that were numbered of them, were forty 
and five thousand and six hundred and fifty. 

16 All that were numbered of the camp of Reuben 
were an hundred thousand and fifty and one 
thousand and four hundred and fifty, according 
to their hosts. And they shall set forth second. 

17 Then the tent of meeting shall set forward, 
with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the 
camps : as they encamp, so shall they set for- 
ward, every man in his place, by their standards. 

18 On the west side shall be the standard of the 
camp of Ephraim according to their hosts : and 
the prince of the children of Ephraim shall be 

19 Elishama the son of Ammihud. And his host, 
and those that were numbered of them, were 

20 forty thousand and five hundred. And next 
unto him shall be the tribe of Manasseh : and 
the prince of the children of Manasseh shall be 

21 Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur : and his host, 
and those that were numbered of them, were 

22 thirty and two thousand and two hundred : and 
the tribe of Benjamin: and the prince of the 
children of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of 

23 Gideoni: and his host, and those that were num- 
bered of them, were thirty and five thousand 

24 and four hundred. All that were numbered of 
the camp of Ephraim were an hundred thou- 
sand and eight thousand and an hundred, ac- 
cording to their hosts. And they shall set forth 
third. 



as the men chosen for each of the tribes to assist 
in the census. The only thing which this chap- 
ter adds to the information given in chap. 1 is 
the order in the camp and on the march. 

Judah, the largest tribe, with the other tribes 
forming his camp, takes the post of honor on 
the east or front of the tent of meeting, and 
the van on the march. The second and third, 



or south and west camps, headed respectively 
by Reuben and Ephraim, are the smallest in 
number; while the rear is guarded on the 
march by the strong camp of Dan. In the order 
of the march the tabernacle with the priests and 
the attendant tribe of non-combatant Levites 
comes between the second and third camps. In 
the first camp Judah associates with himself 



18 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. III. 



25 The standard of the camp of Dan shall be on 
the north side by their armies : and the captain of 
the children of Dan shall be Ahiezer the sou of Am- 
mishaddai. 

26 And his host, and those that were numbered 
of them, ivere threescore and two thousand and 
seven hundred. 

27 And those that encamp by him shall be the 
tribe of Asher : and the captain of the children of 
Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ocran. 

28 And his host, and those that were numbered 
of them, were forty and one thousand and live 
hundred. 

29 Then the tribe of Naphtali : and the captain 
of the children of Naphtali shall be Ahira the son of 
Enan. 

30 And his host, and those that were numbered 
of them, were fifty and three thousand and four 
hundred. 

31 All they that were numbered in the camp of 
Dan were an hundred thousand and fifty and seven 
thousand and six hundred. They shall go hind- 
most with their standards. 

32 These are those which were numbered of the 
children of Israel by the house of their fathers : all 
those that were numbered of the camps throughout 
their hosts were six hundred thousand and three 
thousand and five hundred and fifty. 

33 But the Levites were not numbered among 
the children of Israel ; as the Lord commanded 
Moses. 

34 And the children of Israel did according to all 
that the Lord commanded Moses : so they pitched 
by their standards, and so they set forward, every 
one after their families, according to the house of 
their fathers. 



25 On the north side shall be the standard of the 
camp of Dan according to their hosts : and the 
prince of the children of Dan shall be Ahiezer 

26 the son of Ammishaddai. And his host, and 
those that were numbered of them, were three- 
score and two thousand and seven hundred. 

27 And those that pitch next unto him shall be the 
tribe of Asher: and the prince of the children 

28 of Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ochran : and 
his host, and those that were numbered of them, 
were forty and one thousand and five hundred : 

29 and the tribe of Naphtali : and the prince of the 
children of Naphtali shall be Ahira the son of 

30 Enan : and his host, and those that were num- 
bered of them, were fifty and three thousand 

31 and four hundred. All that were numbered of 
the camp of Dan were an hundred thousand and 
fifty and seven thousand and six hundred. They 
shall set forth hindmost by their standards. 

32 These are they that were numbered of the 
children of Israel by their fathers' houses : all 
that were numbered of the camps according to 
their hosts were six hundred thousand and three 

33 thousand and five hundred and fifty. But the 
Levites were not numbered among the children 

34 of Israel ; as the Lord commanded Moses. Thus 
did the children of Israel ; according to all that 
the Lord commanded Moses, so they pitched by 
their standards, and so they set forward, every 
one by their families, according to their fathers' 
houses. 



CHAPTEK III. 



1 THESE also are the generations of Aaron and 
Moses in the day that the Lord spake with Moses in 
mount Sinai. 

2 And these are the names of the sons of Aaron ; 
Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and 
Ithamar. 

3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the 
priests which were anointed, whom he consecrated 
to minister in the priest's office. 



1 NOW these are the generations of Aaron and 
Moses in the day that the Lord spake with Moses 

2 in mount Sinai. And these are the names of the 
sons of Aaron ; Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, 

3 Eleazar, and Ithamar. These are the names of 
the sons of Aaron, the priests which were 
anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in 



two other tribes which were descendants of 
Leah; in the second Reuben the firstborn has 
with him the second son of Leah and Gad son 
of Zilpah, which tribe with Reuben chose its 
inheritance on the east of the Jordan. In the 
third camp the children of Rachel are all asso- 
ciated together ; while the fourth comprises the 
remaining three sons of the handmaids, headed 
by the eldest, Dan. 

The order in which the Levites encamped and 
marched is described in the next chapter. 

The form of the camp, while ideally square, 
a favorite shape in Israelitish prophecy, ex- 
pressive of ideal completeness (see Ezek. 48 : 20 ; 
Rev. 21 : 16), was neccssarily often varied to adapt 
itself to the configuration of the wadies or plains 
where the tents were pitched. 



Chap. 3. The Levites taken for the 

SERVICE OF the SANCTUARY IN LIEU OF THE 

FIRSTBORN. 1-4. The word generations, 

n'^S'lJ^, tol'dhoth, is used throughout the book 
of Genesis as a heading of the historical sections, 



and is taken by critics as a mark of the priestly 
document. It does not always signify gene- 
alogy, but is often used in the sense of histoid, 
or account, as in Gen. 2:4. In the Hebrew 
mind the whole conception of development 
formed or constituted itself from the idea of be- 
getting ; so that genealogy and history scarcely 
needed difierent words to designate them. The 
title seems to be used in this first verse as if the 
writer had started out with the intention of 
giving a fuller account of the families of Moses 
and Aaron at the epoch of Jehovah's revelation 
to Moses in Sinai. The title is superseded in 
the second verse by another restricting the 
genealogical list to the sons of Aaron, and leav- 
ing Moses with the bare mention of his name. 
The names given here are the names of the 
priests, and they are introduced in order to dis- 
tinguish them as a more sacred class from the 
Levites with whom the remainder of the chap- 
ter is concerned. Their superior sanctity is 
expressed by the form, whom he conse- 
crated, lit., whose hand he filled, to act the 



Ch. III.] 



NUMBERS 



19 



4 And Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord, 
when they offered strange fire before tlie Lord, in 
the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children : 
and Eleazar and Ithamarministered in the priest's 
office in the sight of Aaron their father. 

5 And the Lord spako unto Moses, saying, 

6 Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them 
before Aaron the priest, that they may minister 
unto him. 

7 And they shall keep his charge, and the charge 
of the whole congregation before the tabernacle 
of the congregation, to do the service of the 
tabernacle. 

8 And they shall keep all the instruments of the 
tabernacle of the congregation, and the charge of 
the children of Israel, to do the service of the 
tabernacle. 

9 And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron 
and to his sons : they are wholly given unto him 
out of the children of Israel. 

10 And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, 
and they shall wait on their priest's office : and the 
stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 

11 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

12 And I, behold, 1 have taken the Levites from 
among the children of Israel instead of all the first- 
born that openeth the matrix among the children 
of Israel : therefore the Levites shall be mine ; 

13 Because all the firstborn are mine ; fo7- on the 
day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of 
Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Is- 
rael, both man and beast: mine shall they be : I 
am the Lord. 



4 the priest's office. And Nadab and Abihu died 
before the Lord, when they offered strange tire 
before the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai, and 
they had no children : and Eleazar and Ithamar 
ministered in the priest's office in the presence 
of Aaron their father. 

5 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

6 Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them be- 
fore Aaron the priest, that they may minister 

7 unto him. And they shall keep his charge, and 
the charge of the whole congregation before the 
tent of the meeting, to do the service of the 

8 tabernacle. And they shall keep all the fur- 
niture of the tent of meeting, and the charge of 
the children of Israel, to do the service of the 

9 tabernacle. And thou shalt give the Levites 
unto Aaron and to his sons: they are wholly 
given unto him on the behalf of the children of 

10 Israel. And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his 
sons, and they shall keep their priesthood : and 
the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to 
death. 

11 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

12 And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from 
among the children of Israel instead of all the 
firstborn that openeth the womb among the chil- 
dren of Israel ; and the Levites shall be mine: 

13 for all the firstborn are mine ; on the day that 
I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I 
hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both 
man and beast : mine they shall be ; I am the 
Lord. 



priest. The story of their consecration or " fill- 
ing the hand " is given in Lev. 8. The children 
of Moses were reckoned among the common 
Levites (i Chron. 23 : 14). One branch of his de- 
scendants appears to have held a rival priest- 
hood, with a ritual embodying image- worship, 
in the northern city of Dan from the occupation 
of that city by the Danites until the captivity 

(Judg. 18 : 30). 

5-10. The Levites were to be brought near 
and caused to stand (ver. e) before Aaron as his 
servants. The expression to stand before is 
often used of the position and attitude of a 
servant (see e. g., i Kings 18 : 15), According to 
8 : 13 they were offered to the Lord as a wave 
offering, i. e., & gift that was solemnly given to 
Jehovah to be received back again for the uses 
of the sanctuary. On the wave offering see on 
Lev. 7 : 28-34. The Levites appear to have 
been regarded as fulfilling the people's respon- 
sibility for the adequate and orderly guardian- 
ship and administration of the service — they 
kept the charge of the whole congrega- 
tion before the tabernacle, tent of meet- 
ing. Hence they were counted as substitutes 
for the firstborn whom Jehovah claimed as his 
own ; and their office, as being virtually that of 
the people, was a sort of lay priesthood. The 
priests, as appointed to a service to which no 
"stranger" or layman was to come nigh, are 
therefore strongly contrasted with the Levites 
(see ver. lo). These latter are "given given," 
i. e., wholly given (ver. 9) to Aaron on behalf of 



the children of Israel. These devoted, D'^^HJ, 
nthunim, Israelites are to be distinguished 

from the D''J"'riJ, nthinim (Ezra 7 : 24; 8 : 2O; Neh. 

11 : 21) who were of non-Israelitish descent and 
who were in their turn given to the Levites to 
do the most menial service (Josh. 9 : 27). 

In Deuteronomy this sharp distinction be- 
tween the priests and the Levites seems to be 
unknown. The functions of the Levites appear 
to be more distinctly priestly; they stand be- 
fore the Lord to minister unto him and to hless 
in his name (Deut. 10 : s), and indeed seem to be 
spoken of simply as the priestly tribe. In that 
book Aaron is not called a priest, and the priests 
are everywhere the sons of Levi, instead of more 
specifically the sons of Aaron. This difference 
of standpoint with regard to the priest's office 
seems to reflect different degrees of ecclesiastical 
development in the nation, and the more exact 
differentiation characteristic of the priest-legis- 
lation is thought to be later than that reflected 
in Deuteronomy. 

11-13. These verses set forth the theory of 
the separation of the sons of Levi to the service 
of the sanctuary and their absolute ownership 
by Jehovah. These people are taken in lieu 
of the firstborn whom Jehovah consecrated 
to himself when he smote the firstborn of the 
Egyptians (see Exod. 13 : 1, 2 ; 12 : 13). This redemp- 
tion of the firstborn by the substitution of the Le- 
vites seems to be foreshadowed and provided for 
in the expression (Exod. 13 : is) "all ihe firstborn 
of man among thy sous shalt thou redeem." 



20 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. III. 



14 And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilder- 
ness of Sinai, saying, 

15 Number the children of Levi after the house 
of their fathers, by their families : every male from 
a month old and upward shalt thou number them. 

16 And Moses numbered them according to the 
word of the Lord, as he was commanded. 

17 And these were the sons of Levi by their 
names : Gershon, and Kohatli, and Merari. 

18 And these are the names of the sons of Gershon 
by their families ; Libni, and Shimei. 

19 And the sons of Kohath by their families ; 
Amram, and Izehar, Hebron, and Uzziel. 

20 And the sons of Merari by their families ; 
Mahli, and Mushi. These are the families of the 
Levites according to the house of their fathers. 

21 Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites, and 
the family of theShimites: these are the families 
of the Gershonites. 

22 Tliose that were numbered of them according 
to the number of all the males, from a month old 
and upward, even those that were numbered of 
them were seven thousand and five hundred. 

23 The families of the Gershonites shall pitch be- 
hind the tabernacle westward. 

24 And the chief of the house of the father of the 
Gershonites shall be Eliasaph the son of Lael. 

25 And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the 
tabernacle of the congregation shall he the taber- 
nacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the 
hanging for the door of the tabernacle of tlie 
congregation, 

26 And the hangings of the court, and the cur- 
tain for the door of the court, which is by the taber- 
nacle, and by the altar round about, and the cords 
of it for all the service thereof. 

27 And of Kohath was the family of the Amram- 
ites, and the family of the Izeharites, and the 
family of the Hebronites, and the family of the 
Uzzielites : these are the families of the Kohathites. 

28 In the number of all the males, from a month 
old and upward, were eight thousand and six hun- 
dred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary. 

29 The families of the sons of Kohath shall pitch 
on the side of the tabernacle southward. 

30 And the chief of the house of the father of the 
families of the Kohathites shall he Elizaphan the 
son of Uzziel. 



14 And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilder- 

15 ness of Sinai, saying, Number the children of 
Levi by their fathers' houses, by their families : 
every male from a month old and upward shalt 

16 thou number them. And Moses numbered them 
according to the word of the Lord, as he was 

17 commanded. And these were the sons of Levi 
by their names ; Gershon, and Kohath, and Me- 

18 rari. And these are the names of the sons of 
Gershon by their families ; Libni and Shimei. 

19 And the sons of Kohath by their families ; Am- 

20 ram, and Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. And the 
sons of Merari by their families; Mahli and 
Mushi. These are the families of the Levites 
according to their fathers' houses. 

21 Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites, 
and the family of the Shimeites : these are the 

22 families of the Gershonites. Those that were 
numbered of them, according to the number of 
all the males, from a month old and upward, 
even those that were numbered of them were 

23 seven thousand and five hundred. The families 
of the Gershonites shall pitch behind the taber- 

24 nacle westward. And the prince of the fathers' 
house of the Gershonites shall be Eliasaph the 

25 son of Lael. And the charge of the sons of Ger- 
shon in the tent of meeting shall be the taber- 
nacle, and the Tent, the covering thereof, and 
the screen for the door of the tent of meeting, 

26 and the hangings of the court, and the .screen 
for the door of the court, which is by the taber- 
nacle, and by the altar round about, and the 
cords of it for all the service thereof. 

27 And of Kohath was the family of the Amram- 
ites, and the family of the Izharites, and the 
family of the Hebronites, and the family of the 
Uzzielites : these are the families of the Kohath- 

28 ites. According to the number of all the males, 
from a month old and upward, there were eight 
thousand and six hundred, keeping the charge 

29 of the sanctuary. The families of the sons of 
Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle 

30 southward. And the prince of the father's 
house of the families of the Kohathites shall be 



14-20. In the wilderness of Sinai. 

The pains taken to specify the place of the rev- 
elation (cf. Lev. 25 : 1) seems to indicate the intro- 
duction of a more broadly separated topic in the 
author's mind. The Levites are numbered from 
a month old and upward, as that was the age at 
which the firstborn were to be presented for re- 
demption (see 18 : 16). Of thesc Levitcs there are 
three branches : Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, 
the first and third being subdivided into two 
families each, and the second into four (comp. 

Exod. 6 : 16-19). 

21-39. The Gershonites were to pitch their 
tents in the immediate vicinity of the tabernacle 
and on the west side. Their charge in general 
was the whole of the cloth work and tapestry 
of the sanctuary or tent of meeting and of the 
court which surrounded it, with the exception 
of the veil shutting off the most holy place. 
This they were not only to pack up and trans- 
port when the tabernacle moved, and to place 
in position when the tabernacle was set up, but 
to care for and regulate so far as it was employed 



in religious service. The cords of it (ver. 26) , 
probably means the cords of the sanctuary rather 
than of the court, which latter appear to have 
been in charge of the sons of Merari (ver. 37). 

The Kohathites were the most numerous of 
the families of Levi and the branch from which, 
through Amram, came Moses and the priests. 
They were to pitch on the south side of the 
tabernacle, and their service was the most hon- 
orable and also hazardous, on account of the self- 
avenging sanctity of the sacred objects which 
they were to handle. They had to do with the 
ark and the table and the altars and all the most 
sacred vessels, and the great veil which separ- 
ated the holy place from the most holy— ob- 
jects which were too sacred to be transported in 
any way except on men's shoulders, or to be 
seen by any but the priests. These men, as well 
as the other two Levitical families with their 
princes, were to be under the command and 
oversight of Eleazar the son of Aaron. 

The Merarites were upon the north and had 
in general the charge of the heavy and solid 



Ch. III.] 



NUMBERS 



21 



31 And their charge shaU be the ark, and the table, 
and the candlestick, and the altars, and the ves- 
sels of the sanctuary wherewith they minister, and 
the hanging, and all the service thereof. 

32 And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall 
be chief over the chief of the Levites, and have the 
oversight of them that keep the charge of the 
sanctuary. 

33 Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites, and 
the family of the Mushites : these are the families 
of Merari. 

34 And those that were numbered of them, ac- 
cording to the number of all the males, from a 
month old and upward, were six thousand and two 
hundred. 

35 And the chief of the house of the father of 
the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Ab- 
ihail : these shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle 
northward. 

36 And under the custody and charge of the sons 
of Merari shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and 
the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the 
sockets thereof, and all the vessels thereof, and all 
that serveth thereto, 

37 And the pillars of the court round about, and 
their sockets, and their pins, and their cords. 

38 But those that encamp before the tabernacle 
toward the east, even before the tabernacle of the 
congregation eastward, shall be Moses, and Aaron 
and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary 
for the charge of the children of Israel ; and the 
stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 

39 All that were numbered of the Levites, which 
Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment 
of the Lord, throughout their families, all the males 
from a month old and upward, were twenty and 
two thousand. 

40 And the Lord said unto Moses, Number all the 
firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from 
a month old and upward, and take the number of 
their names. 



31 Elizaphan the son of Uzziel. And their charge 
shall be the ark, and the table, and the candle- 
stick, and the altars, and the vessels of the 
sanctuary wherewith they minister, and the 

32 screen, and all the service thereof. And Eleazar 
the son of Aaron the priest shall be prince of the 
princes of the Levites, and have the oversight of 
them that keep the charge of the sanctuary. 

33 Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites, and 
the family of the Mushites : these are the fami- 

34 lies of Merari. And those that were numbered 
of them, according to the number of all the 
males, from a month old and upward, were six 

35 thousand and two hundred. And the prince of 
the fathers' house of the families of Merari was 
Zuriel the son of Abihail : they shall pitch on 

36 the side of the tabernacle northward. And the 
appointed charge of the sons of Merari shall be 
the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, 
and the pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof, 
and all the instruments thereof, and all the serv- 

37 ice thereof ; and the pillars of the court round 
about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their 

38 cords. And those that pitch before the tabernacle 
eastward, before the tent of meeting toward the 
sunrising, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his 
sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for 
the charge of the children of Israel ; and the 
stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 

39 All that were numbered of the Levites, which 
Moses and Aaron numbered ut the command- 
ment of the Lord, by their families, all the males 
from a month old and upward, were twenty and 
two thousand. 

40 And the Lord said unto Moses, Number all 
the firstborn males of the children of Israel from 
a month old and upward, and take the number 



work of the tabernacle and the court — the boards 
and bars and pillars and sockets. On the east 
or front side of the tabernacle were located 
Moses and Aaron and the priests, and their part 
of the camp was rigidly secluded from lay 
intrusion. 

The total number of the Levites is given (ver. 39) 
as twenty-two thousand, while the sum of the 
numbers of the three families, seven thousand 
five hundred, eight thousand six hundred, and 
six thousand two hundred, is twenty- two thou- 
sand three hundred. This erroneous footing is 
adopted without comment as the basis of the 
redemption of the overplus of the firstborn (ver. 
46), an overplus which would not exist if the 
numbers were used as in the text and correctly 
added. We can account for this arithmetical 
error only conjecturally. It is possible that an 
error in copying has crept into the text. The 
addition of a single letter in the word indicating 
the hundreds in the family of Kohath (ver. 28) 
would make it read eight thousand and three 
hundred, which would correct the error. It is 
to be noted that the tribe of Levi is very small 
in comparison with the other tribes, being ten 
thousand less than Manasseh the smallest of 
them, even though reckoned from a month old 
upward, while the other tribes are reckoned 



from twenty years up. Dillmann seems to have 
the suspicion, not that the tribe of Levi is 
reckoned too small, but that the numbers of the 
other tribes have been placed too high for the 
time of Moses. It is thought that many of alien 
or mixed birth who were adopted into the other 
tribes may have served to swell their numbers, 
while only those of pure descent would be 
counted qualified to serve the sanctuary in the 
tribe of Levi. 

40-43. As the Levites are to be taken instead 
of the firstborn of the children of Israel it be- 
comes necessary to take a census of the first- 
born in order to verify the fairness of the ex- 
change. The number, twenty-two thousand two 
hundred and seventy-three, bears a very small 
proportion to the six hundred and three thou- 
sand five hundred and fifty (1 = *6) males of 
twenty years old and upward. It is therefore 
believed that by the firstborn of the males 
of the children of Israel, here taken are 
meant simply those firstborn males who had 
come into the world since the command " Sanc- 
tify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever 
openeth the womb" (Exod. 13 : 2) had been given, 
thirteen months before. This is the most natural 
interpretation of a command which apparently 
for the first time takes account of the first- 



22 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. IV. 



41 And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am 
the Lord) instead or" ail the tirstboru among the 
children of Israel ; and the cattle o: the Levites in- 
stead of all the hrstlings among the cattle ox tiie 
children of Israel. 

42 And Moses numbered, as the Lord commanded 
him, all the lirstborn among the cliildren of Israel. 

43 And all the lirstborn males by the number of 
names, from a mouth old and upward, of those that 
■were numbered of them, were twenty and two 
thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen. 

44 And the Lord spake unto Moses, sayiUir, 

45 Take the Levites instead of all the hrstborn 
among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the 
Levites instead of their cattle ; and the Levites 
shall be mine : I am the Lord. 

46 And for those that are to be redeemed of the 
two hundred and threescore and thirceen of the 
tirstboru of the childreu of Israel, which are more 
than the Levites ; 

47 Thou shalt even take five shekels apiece by 
the poll, after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt 
thou take them : (the shekel is twenty gerans :) 

48 And thou shalt give the moneV, wherewith 
the odd number of them is to be redeemed, unto 
Aaron and to his sons. 

49 And Moses took the redemption money of them 
that were over and above them that were redeemed 
by the Levites : 

50 Of the firstborn of the children of Israel took 
he the money ; a thouband three hundred and 
threescore and five shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary : 

51 And' Moses gave the money of them that were 
redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons, according 
to the word of the Lord, as the Lord commanded 
Moses. 



41 of their names. And thou shalt take the Le- 
vites for me (I am the Lord) instead of all the 
firstborn among the children of Israel ; and the 
cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings 

42 among the cattle of the children of Israel. And 
Moses numbered, as the Lord commanded him, 
all the firstborn among the children of Israel. 

43 And all the firstborn males according to the 
number of names, from a month old and up- 
ward, of those that were numbered of them, 
were twenty and two thousand two hundred 
and threescore and thirteen. 

44 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saving, 

45 Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn 
among the children of Israel, and the cattle of 
the Levites instead of their cattle : and the Le- 

46 vites shall be mine ; I am the Lord. And for 
the redemption of the two hundred and three- 
score and thirteen of the firstborn of the chil- 
dren of Israel, which are over and above the 

47 number of the Levites. thou shalt take five shek- 
els apiece by the poll ; after the shekel of the 
sanctuary shalt thou take them (the shekel is 

48 twenty gerahs) : and thou shalt give the money 
wherewith the odd number of them is redeemed 

49 unto Aaron and to his sons. And Moses took 
the redemption -money from them that were 
over and above them that were redeemed by the 

50 Levites : from the hrstborn of the children of 
Israel took he the money : a thousand three 
hundred and threescore and five shekels, after 

51 the shekel of the sanctuary : and Moses gave 
the redemption-money unto Aaron and to his 
sons, according to the word of the Lord, as the 
Lord commanded Moses. 



CHAPTER IV. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 
Aaron, saying, 

2 Take "the sum of the sons of Kohath from 
among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the 
house of their fathers, 

3 From thirty years old and upward even until 
fifty years old' all that enter into the host, to do 
the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. 



1 AND the Lord spake tinto Moses and unto 

2 Aaron, saying, Take the sum of the sons of 
Kohath frbm^among the sons of Levi, by their 
families, by their fathers' houses, from' thirty 

3 years old 'and upward even until fifty yeai-s 
old, all that enter upon the service," to do 



bom in reference to their uses for a sanctuary 
yet to be built. With this understanding, re- 
stricting the account to the firstborn males less 
than thineen months old, the proportion to the 
total population is large as compared with the 
proportion prevailing among the less prolific 
races of modern times. It is very natui-al to 
suppose, however, that, after the cruel restric- 
tions and hardships of the bondage, the reac- 
tion and the immediate consummation of de- 
ferred marriages during the year of wilderness- 
freedom and hope would bring the number of 
births up to an exceptional proportion. It is 
certainly true that among all peoples the aver- 
age of births varies considerably according to 
the hardness or prosperity of the times. Added 
to this is the consideration that the proportion of 
male to female children is large among the Jews. 
44-51, The cattle of the Levites (ver. «) are 
taken in the lump for this time in order to 
obviate the well-nigh impracticable search for 
firstlings among the numerous herds of the chil- 
dren of Israel ; while all firstlings born in the 



future are to be presented by their owners to 

Jehovah (Esod. is : 12 .• Xum. IS : 17). 

Five shekels came to be the established sum 
required for the redemption of the firstborn (see 
18 : 16). This was also the sum required for the 
commutation of a vow in the case of a male 
child from a month to five years old (see Lev. 
27 : 6). This money was paid to the priests, as 
the firstborn were reckoned theirs (is : 15) ; and 
the Levites, also wholly given to them (3:9), 
did not satisfy all the claims of Aaron's family 
upon the children of Israel. 



Chap. 4. DrxiES of the Letites in de- 
tail AND NUMBER OF THOSE QrALIFIED FOfi 
SERVICE. 1-20. The Levites are thought of as 
a kind of sacred militia and therefore their 
service is often designated by the word warfare, 
or military service (^er. 3, 35, 39, 43). The service 
of the Levites for the sanctuary expressly cor- 
responds to the service of the other tribes for 
war. It is with special reference to the mo- 
bilization of the tabernacle and its furniture 



Ch. IV.] 



NUMBERS 



23 



4 This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath 
ia the tabernacle of the congregation, about the 
most holy things : 

5 And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron 
shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down 
the covering vail, and cover the ark of testimony 
with it : 

6 And shall put thereon the covering of badgers' 
skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of 
blue, and shall put in the staves thereof. 

7 And upon the table of shewbread they shall 
spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, 
and the spoons, and the bowls, and covers to cover 
withal : and the continual bread shall be thereon : 

8 And they shall spread upon them a cloth of 
scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of 
badgers' skins, and shall put in the staves thereof. 

9 And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover 
the candlestick of the light, and his lamps, and 
his tongs, and his snuffdishes, and all the oil ves- 
sels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it: 

10 And they shall put it and all the vessels there- 
of within a covering of badgers' skins, and shall 
put it upon a bar. 

11 And upon the golden altar they shall spread a 
cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of 
badgers' skins, and shall put to the staves thereof : 

12 And they shall take all the instruments of 
ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanctu- 
ary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover 
them with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall 
put them on a bar : 

13 And they shall take away the ashes from the 
altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon : 

14 And they shall put upon it all the vessels 
thereof, wherewith they minister about it, even the 
censers, the fleshhooks, and the shovels, and the 
basons, all the vessels of the altar ; and they shall 
spread upon it a covering of badgers' skins, and 
put to the staves of it. 

15 And when Aaron and his sons have made an 
end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels 
of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward ; 
after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear 
it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest 
they die. These things are the burden of the sons 
of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation. 



4 the work in the tent of meeting. This is the 
service of the sons of Kohath in the tent of 

5 meeting, about the most holy things : when the 
camp setteth forward, Aaron shall go in, and his 
sons, and they shall take down the veil of the 
screen, and cover the ark of the testimony with 

6 it : and shall put thereon a covering of sealskin, 
and shall spread over it a cloth all of blue, and 

7 shall put in the staves thereof. And upon the 
table of shewbread they shall spread a cloth of 
blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, 
and the bowls and the cups to pour out withal : 

8 and the continual bread shall be thereon : and 
they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, 
and cover the same with a covering of sealskin, 

9 and shall put in the staves thereof. And they 
shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candle- 
stick oi the light, and its lamps, and its tongs, 
and its snuffdishes, and all the oil vessels there- 

10 of, wherewith they minister unto it : and they 
shall put it and all the vessels thereof within a 
covering of sealskin, and shall put it upon the 

11 frame. And upon the golden altar they shall 
spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a cov- 
ering of sealskin, and shall put in the staves 

12 thereof : and they shall take all the vessels of 
ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanc- 
tuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and 
cover them with a covering of sealskin, and 

13 shall put them on the frame. And they shall 
take away the ashes from the altar, and spread 

14 a purple cloth thereon : and they shall put upon 
it all the vessels thereof, wherewith they min- 
ister about it, the firepans, the fleshhooks, and 
the shovels, and the basons, all the vessels of the 
altar ; and they shall spread upon it a covering 

15 of sealskin, and put in the staves thereof. And 
when Aaron and his sons have made an end of 
covering the sanctuary, and all the furniture of 
the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward ; 
after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to 
bear it : but they shall not touch the sanctuary, 
lest they die. These things are the burden of 



that their duties are described, because it was 
when the holy things were being handled and 
transported that these were in special danger of 
profanation. The service of the Kohathites was 
the holiest, lit., "holy of holies" (ver. 4) ; they 
were to carry the ark and the table of shew- 
bread and the candlestick and the golden and 
brazen altars. These were first to be carefully 
covered and packed for transportation by the 
priests before the Levites came near to touch or 
even to see them. We may well suppose that 
the holiest things were the first to be packed 
before the removal of the curtains of the tent, 
which were in the charge of the Gershonites, and 
while the priests could work unseen in the 
sanctuary. The taking down of the great veil 
of partition (ver. 5) would open the most holy 
place, but its one inefiably sacred object of fur- 
niture, the ark, was immediately covered with 
that veil, so that no eye except that of the au- 
thorized priest ever beheld it. One of the 
wrappings of the ark, as also of each of the 
sacred articles in charge of the Kohathites, was 
a covering of sealskin ; then for an outer cover- 



ing the ark was to have a cloth wholly of dark 
blue or purple (ver. e), and its poles which, 
though always kept in position (Exod. 25 : u, 15), 
would need to be disarranged in the process of 
packing, were to be adjusted. 

The table of shew-bread was to be spread 
with a cloth of blue on which were to be placed 
its utensils and the bread which was continu- 
ally to be kept in position (ver. 7), and its dis- 
tinctive covering was a cloth of "worm crimson " 
(ver. 8). The candlestick, which was without 
carrying poles, and also the small utensils per- 
taining to the care of it and to the service of the 
altar of incense were, carried on a frame or cra- 
dle (ver. 10, 12). The great altar of burnt offering 
was to be cleansed of its greasy ashes (ver. 13) 
and covered, along with its dishes and forks and 
shovels, with a cloth of purple. After ver. 14 
the Septuagint and the Samaritan text insert 
directions for covering the brazen laver and 
putting it on a frame, but this is probably an 
unauthorized interpolation. 

It was not until the priests had completed the 
wrapping of the holy things that the sons of 



24 



NUMBEKS 



[Ch. IV. 



16 And to the office of Eleazar the son of Aaron 
the priest pertaineth the oil for the light, and the 
sweet incense, and the daily meat offering, and 
the anointing oil, and the oversight of all the tab- 
ernacle, and of all that therein is, in the sanctuary, 
and in the vessels thereof. 

17 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 
Aaron, saying, 

18 Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the 
Kohathites from among the Levites : 

19 But thus do unto them, that they may live, 
and not die, when they approach unto the most 
holy things : Aaron and his sons shall go in, and 
appoint them every one to his service and to his 
burden : 

20 But they shall not go in to see when the holy 
things are covered, lest they die. 

21 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

22 Take also the sum of the sons of Gershon, 
throughout the houses of their fathers, by their 
families ; 

23 From thirty years old and upward until fifty 
years old shalt thou number them ; all that enter 
in to perform the service, to do the work in the 
tabernacle of the congregation. 

2i This is the service of the families of the Ger- 
shonites, to serve, and for burdens : 

25 And they shall bear the curtains of the taber- 
nacle, and the tabernacle of the congregation, his 
covering, and the covering of the badgers' skins 
that is above upon it, and the hanging for the door 
of the tabernacle of the congregation, 

26 And the hangings of the court, and the hang- 
ing for the door of the gate of the court, which is 
by the tabernacle and by the altar round about, 
and their cords, and all the instruments of their 
service, and all that is made for them; so shall 
they serve. 

27 At the appointment of Aaron and his sons 
shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershon- 
ites, in all their burdens, and in all their service : 
and ye shall appoint unto them in charge all their 
burdens. 



16 the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting. And 
the charge of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest 
shall be the oil for the light, and the sweet in- 
cense, and the continual meal offering, and the 
anointing oil, the charge of all the tabernacle, 
and of all that therein is, the sanctuary, and the 
furniture thereof. 

17 And the Lord spake unto Moseg and unto 

18 Aaron, saying. Cut ye not off the tribe Of the 
families of the Kohathites from among the 

19 Levites : but thus do unto them, that they may 
live, and not die, when they approach unto the 
most holy things : Aaron and his sons shall go 
in, and appoint them every one to his service 

20 and to his burden : but they shall not go in to 
see the sanctuary even for a moment, lest they 
die. 

21 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Take 

22 the sum of the sons of Gershon also, by their 

23 fathers' houses, by their families ; from thirty 
years old and upward until fifty years old shalt 
thou number them ; all that enter in to wait 
upon the service, to do the work in the tent of 

24 meeting. This is the service of the families of 
the Gershonites, in serving and in bearing 

25 burdens : they shall bear the curtains of the 
tabernacle, and the tent of meeting, its cover- 
ing, and the covering of sealskin that is above 
upon it, and the screen for the door of the tent 

26 of meeting ; and the hangings of the court, and 
the screen for the door of the gate of the court, 
which is by the tabernacle and by the altar 
round about, and their cords, and all the in- 
struments of their service, and whatsoever shall 
be done with them, therein shall they serve. 

27 At the commandment of Aaron and his sons 
shall be all the service of the sons of the Ger- 
shonites, in all their burden, and in all their 
service : and ye shall appoint unto them in 



Kohath were to draw near to perform their serv- 
ice as bearers, lest the profane touch of their lay 
hands should cause their death. According to 
the probably older legislation of Deuteronomy, 
which does not so clearly distinguish the priests 
from the Levites (see on 3 : 5-io), the chief of the 
privileges of the whole priestly tribe of Levi is 
that of bearing the ark (see Deut. si : 9, 25), and 
this corresponds to the evidence of the older his- 
torical books, according to which the priests 

bear the ark (see Josh. 3:3; 6 : 6, 12 ; 8 : 83 ; 1 Kings 

2 : 26 ; 8 : 3, 6), It appears that, in addition to the 
total charge of the Levitical service (3:32) and 
the more specific oversight of the Kohathites, 
Eleazar was to have for his special and personal 
duty the care of the holy oils and incense and of 
the constant minchah (see ver. le). 

A peculiar command is given to Aaron and 
his sons in ver. 18, seq. Th^y are directed not 
to cut off the families of the Kohathites from 
among the Levites by neglecting to apprise them 
or keep them vividly sensible of the momen- 
tously solemn nature of their duties. Closely 
allied to the sense of sacredness is the sense of 
order, and a service so extra hazardous as that 
of the Kohathites would be guarded from the 



danger of falling into a perilous heedlessness by 
being carefully organized (^er. w)^ so that every 
man had his well-understood share of the task. 
A very wholesome fear of making holy things 
common was fostered by warning these lay serv- 
ants that if they went in to see the " holy " even 
" according to a swallowing," i. e., for an instant 
(ver. 20 ; cf. Job 7 : 19) they should die. The inci- 
dent related in 1 Sam. 6 : 19 is a historical in- 
stance of the stern retribution visited upon 
such profane staring, and the fate of Uzzah 
(2 Sam. 6 : 6, 7) was a Warning of what might be 
feared if an unauthorized person, even with the 
best intention, touched the dreadful symbol of 
Jehovah's seat. 

21-33. The service of the Gershonites, which 
is introduced, as was that of the Kohathites, by 
a command to number their effectives for the 
sanctuary — every one that goeth forth to war 
warfare, to serve service (ver. so) — is described 
substantially as in 3 : 25, 26 and in the same 
order, only in a little greater detail. 24. 
Their service, when the tabernacle was in use 
and their assignment for carrying when it was re- 
moved (to serve, and for burdens), was the 
whole cloth work of the sanctuary and the tent 



Ch. IV.] 



NUMBERS 



25 



28 This is the service of the families of the sons 
of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation : 
and their charge shall be under the hand of Ithamar 
the son of Aaron the priest. 

29 As for the sons of Merari, thou shalt number 
them after their families, by the house of their 
fathers ; 

30 From thirty years old and upward even unto 
fifty years old shalt thou number them, every one 
that entereth into the service, to do the work of the 
tabernacle of the congregation. 

31 And this is the charge of their burden, accord- 
ing to all their service in the tabernacle of the 
congregation ; the boards of the tabernacle, and 
the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and sock- 
ets thereof, 

32 And the pillars of the court round about, and 
their sockets, and their pins, and their cords, with 
all their instruments, and with all their service : 
and by name ye shall reckon the instruments of 
the charge of their burden. 

33 This is the service of the families of the sons 
of Merari, according to all their service, in the 
tabernacle of the congregation, under the hand of 
Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. 

34 And Moses and Aaron and the chief of the 
congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites 
after their families, and after the house of their 
fathers, 

35 From thirty years old and upward even unto 
fifty years old, every one that entereth into the 
service, for the work in the tabernacle of the 
congregation : 

36 And those that were numbered of them by 
their families were two thousand seven hundred 
and fifty. 

37 These were they that were numbered of the 
families of the Kohathites, all that might do serv- 
ice in the tabernacle of the congregation, which 
Moses and Aaron did number according to the 
commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. 

38 And those that were numbered of the sons of 
Gershon, throughout their families, and by the 
house of their fathers, 

39 From thirty years old and upward even unto 
fifty years old, every one that entereth into the 
service, for the work in the tabernacle of the 
congregation, 

40 Even those that were numbered of them, 
throughout their families, by the house of their 
fathers, were two thousand and six hundred and 
thirty. 

41 These are they that were numbered of the 
families of the sons of Gershon, of all that might 
do service in the tabernacle of the congregation, 
whom Moses and Aaron did number according to 
the commandment of the Lord. 

42 And those that were numbered of the families 
of the sons of Merari, throughout their families, by 
the house of their fathers, 



28 charge all their burden. This is the service of 
the families of the sous of the Gershonites in the 
tent of meeting: and their charge shall be 
under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron 
the priest. 

29 As for the sons of Merari, thou shalt number 
them by their families, by their fathers' houses ; 

30 from thirty years old and upward even unto 
fifty years old shalt thou number them, every 
one that entereth upon the service, to do the 

31 work of the tent of meeting. And this is the 
charge of their burden, according to all their 
service in the tent of meeting ; the boards of the 
tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars 

32 thereof, and the sockets thereof ; and the pillars 
of the court round about, and their sockets, and 
their pins, and their cords, with all their instru- 
ments, and with all their service : and by name 
ye shall appoint the instruments of the charge 

33 of their burden. This is the service of the 
families of the sons of Merari, according to all 
their service, in the tent of meeting, under the 
hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. 

34 And Moses and Aaron and the princes of the 
congregation numbered the sons of the Ko- 
hathites by their families, and by their fathers' 

35 houses, from thirty years old and upward even 
unto fifty years old, every one that entered upon 
the service, for work in the tent of meeting : 

36 and those that were numbered of them by their 
families were two thousand seven hundred and 

37 fifty. These are they that were numbered of 
the families of the Kohathites, all that did 
serve in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and 
Aaron numbered according to the command- 
ment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. 

38 And those that were numbered of the sons of 
Gershon, by their families, and by their fathers' 

39 houses, from thirty years old and upward even 
unto fifty years old, every one that entered upon 
the service, for work in the tent of meeting, 

40 even those that were numbered of them, by 
their families, by their fathers' houses, were two 

41 thousand and six hundred and thirty. These 
are they that were numbered of the families of 
the sons of Gershon, all that did serve in the 
tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron num- 
bered according to the commandment of the 
Lord. 

42 And those that were numbered of the families 
of the sons of Merari, by their families, by their 



of meeting and the court, with their coverings 
and their door screens, with all the cords and 
tools necessary for setting them up and keeping 
them in order. They were subject to the orders 
of the priests, their special superintendent being 
Ithamar, the second surviving son of Aaron. 

The Merarites, as in chap. 3 and in identical 
language, are assigned to the charge and service 
of the heavy and solid structural parts of the 
tabernacle and court — the boards and bars and 
pillars, with their bases. All the tools of their 
work were to be assigned in charge by name 
and Ithamar was to be their superintendent. It 
will be noted that for the heavy transportation 
that fell to the lot of the Gershonites and Mera- 



rites wagons were provided, the offerings of the 
princes of the tribes being turned over to that 
service (see? : 1-8). 

34-49. The number of the Levites who were 
between thirty and fifty years of age bears a 
fair average proportion to that of those from a 
month old and upward (s : 39)^ but the family of 
Merari, which presented the smallest total from 
a month old — six thousand two hundred as com- 
pared with the seven thousand five hundred and 
eight thousand six hundred of Gershon and 
Kohath respectively — has altogether the largest 
number of effectives from thirty to fifty years, 
having three thousand two hundred as against 
two thousand six hundred and thirty and two 



26 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. V. 



43 From thirty years old and upward even unto 
fifty years old, every one that eutereth into the 
service, for the work in the tabernacle of the 
congregation, 

'H Even those that were numbered of them after 
their families, were three thousand and two 
hundred. 

45 These be those that were numbered of the 
families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and 
Aaron numbered according to the word of the 
Lord by the hand of Moses. 

46 All those that were numbered of the Levites, 
whom Moses and Aaron and the chief of Israel 
numbered, after their families, and after the house 
of their fathers, 

47 From thirty years old and upward even unto 
fifty years old, every one that came to do the serv- 
ice of the ministry, and the service of the burden 
in the tabernacle of the congregation, 

48 Even those that were numbered of them, were 
eight thousand and five hundred and fourscore. 

49 According to the commandment of the Lord 
they were numbered by the hand of Moses, every 
one according to his service, and according to his 
burden : thus were they numbered of him, as the 
Lord commanded Moses. 



43 fathers' houses, from thirty years old and up- 
ward even unto fifty years old, every one that 
entered upon the service, for work in the tent of 

44 meeting, even those that were numbered of them 
by their families, were three thousand and two 

45 hundred. These are they that were numbered 
of the families of the sons of Merari, whom 
Moses and Aaron numbered according to the 
commandment of the Lord by the hand of 
Moses. 

46 All those that were numbered of the Levites, 
whom Moses and Aaron and the princes of 
Israel numbered, by their families, and by their 

47 fathers' houses, from thirty years old and up- 
ward even unto fifty years old, every one that 
entered in to do the work of service, and the 
work of bearing burdens in the tent of meet- 

48 ing, even those that were numbered of them, 
were eight thousand and five hundred and 

49 fourscore. According to the commandment 
of the Lord they were numbered by the hand of 
Moses, every one according to his service, and 
according to his burden : thus were they num- 
bered of him, as the Lord commanded Moses. 



CHAPTER V. 



1 AND the Lord spr.ke unto Moses, saying, 

2 Command the children of Israel, that they put 
out of the camp every leper, and every one that 
hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the 
dead : 

3 Both male and female shall ye put out, with- 
out the camp shall ye put them ; that they defile 
not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. 

4 And the children of Israel did so, and put 
them out without the camp: as the Lord spake 
unto Moses, so did the children of Israel. 

5 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Command the children of Israel, that they put 
out of the camp every leper, and every one that 
hath an issue, and whosoever is unclean by the 

3 dead : both male and female shall ye put out, 
without the camp shall ye put them ; that they 
defile not their camp, in the midst whereof I 

4 dwell. And the children of Israel did so, and 
put them out without the camp: as the Lord 
spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel. 

5 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 



thousand seven hundred and fifty in these other 
families. As to the age at which the Levites 
entered upon service, compare 8 : 24, which fixes 
it at twenty-five years. See note on that passage. 



Chap. 5. Laws on vaeious subjects. 
The laws in this and the following chapter con- 
cern themselves with the sanctity of the congre- 
gation, and evidently sprang from exigencies 
which arose from time to time in the life of the 
nation calling for judicial ruling or legislation. 
It would perhaps be fanciful to call these chap- 
ters an account of the spiritual organization of 
the congregation of Israel, as chap. 1-4 relate 
the outward organization of the camp prepara- 
tory to its journey. 

1-4. 1. Exclusion of the leprous and un- 
clean from the camp. This first regulation is 
more like a cleansing or preparation of the camp 
for the journey than the other laws in these 
chapters. It is legislation for the camp rather 
than for the individual, and is founded on a 
vivid sense of the presence of Jehovah in the 
camp (ver. 3) J and the consequent necessity that 
the camp should be healthful and pure. Ac- 
cording to the regulation in Leviticus confirmed 
lepers were to have their dwelling outside of 
the camp (Lev. is : 46), and the man or woman 



with an issue (iWd., chap, is) was regarded as so 
potent to contribute defilement by the mere 
touch that the rigid isolation of such sufferers, 
especially on the march, was the only safeguard 
against their causing widespread inconvenience 
among their fellows. The third case is that of 
those who are unclean by the dead, or, accord- 
ing to the literal reading, by a soul, as if the 
animal soul in its escape from the body was 
regarded as diffusing a mysterious effluvium 
capable of defiling the whole atmosphere of 
the house or tent. Some passages like that in 
19 : 13, where a person is spoken of as touching 
the soul (not dead body) of a man who is dead, 
or in Ps. 17 : 9 where in soul is used in the sense 
of "deadly," seem to indicate that the ancient 
Hebrew attributed the power of the dead to 
defile to the escaping soul or ghost. 

This passage relates how, in response to the 
command of God, the children of Israel took 
the definite step at this time of providing for 
those who were in constant danger of rendering 
their fellows unclean, places outside of the camp. 

5-10. 2. Law of compensation for fraud in 
case the injured person is dead and has no next 
of kin. This passage is a repetition and sup- 
plement to the regulation with regard to the 
guilt offering given in Lev. 5 : 14 to 6 : 7. The sin 



Ch. v.] 



NUMBEKS 



27 



6 Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man 
or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, 
to do a trespass against the Lord, and that person 
be guilty ; 

7 Then they shall confess their sin which they 
have done: and he shall recompense his trespass 
with the principal thereof, and add unto it the 
fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against 
whom he hath trespassed. 

8 But if the man have no kinsman to recompense 
the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed 
unto the Lord, even to the priest ; beside the ram of 
the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be 
made for him. 

9 And every offering of all the holy things of the 
children of Israel, which they bring unto the 
priest, shall be his. 

10 And every man's hallowed things shall be his : 
whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be 
his. 

11 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say 
unto them. If any man's wife go aside, and commit 
a trespass against him, 

13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid 
from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, 
and she be defiled, and there be no witness against 
her, neither she be taken with the manner; 

14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and 
he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled : or if 
the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be 
jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled : 

15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the 
priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the 
tenth part of an ephah of barley meal ; he shall 
pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon ; 
for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of 
memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. 



6 Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man 
or woman shall commit any sin that men com- 
mit, to do a trespass against the Lord, and that 

7 soul be guilty ; then they shall confess their sin 
which they have done: and he shall make 
restitution for his guilt in full, and add unto 
it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him in 

8 respect of whom he hath been guilty. But if 
the man have no kinsman to whom restitution 
may be made for the guilt, the restitution for 
guilt which is made unto the Lord shall be the 
priest's; besides the ram of the atonement, 
whereby atonement shall be made for him. 

9 And every heave offering of all the holy things 
of the children of Israel, which they present 

10 unto the priest, shall be his. And every man's 
hallowed things shall be his : whatsoever any 
man giveth the priest, it shall be his. 

11 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a 

13 trespass against him, and a man lie with her 
carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her hus- 
band, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and 
there be no witness against her, neither she be 

14 taken in the act; and the spirit of jealousy 
come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, 
and she be defiled : or if the spirit of jealousy 
come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, 

15 and she be not defiled : then shall the man 
bring his wife unto the priest, and shall bring 
her oblation for her, the tenth part of an ephah 
of barley meal ; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor 
put frankincense thereon ; for it is a meal offer- 
ing of jealousy, a meal offering of memorial, 



contemplated is a breach of faith with regard 
to the holy things of Jehovah, or some false 
dealing with one's neighbor regarding a deposit 
or pledge, or some matter of robbery or oppres- 
sion, perhaps in keeping back wages or lost 
property found — all of which is regarded as pri- 
marily a /^.D, ma'al, or breach of faith against 
Jehovah. The original regulation is here re- 
peated, viz., that the person is to restore the 
value, with the addition of a fifth, to the person 
wronged. The supplementary regulation is, 
that in case the wronged person, who is sup- 
posed to be dead, has no /IStJ, go'el, or nearest 
of kin, who may receive the restitution, this 
shall go to the priest, in addition to the ram, 
which was the uniformly required victim for 
the guilt offering. Such a regulation as this 
was needed to prevent the important disciplin- 
ary practice of making restitution from lapsing 
in case there was no obvious person to make the 
claim. At the same time it is a regulation which 
would not very naturally be made along with 
the original draft of the law, but would be added 
as a supplement after the rather rare case had 
arisen of an unsatisfied claimant dying without 
any go'el. It seems, therefore, to be an instance of 
case law arising after the main precept had been 
in actual operation and its defects discovered. 

Ver. 9 and 10 also seem to reflect a condition 
of carelessness or reluctance on the part of the 



people to maintain a rigid and abundant faith- 
fulness with regard to the r\'ID-l*ir^, t'rumoth, or 
heave offerings, which were the perquisite of 
the priests — a condition which the legislation 
sought to meet by impressing the people that 
this offering was not a mere gratuity to the 
priest, but a property right, the withholding of 
which would be a breach of faith. In ver. 10 
the pronoun his means the priest's. 

11-31. 3. Ordeal presaHbed for the woman 
suspected by her husband of unfaithfulness. 
This is the only case of the employment of 
the ordeal as a means of testing the guilt of an 
accused person in the Mosaic law. And this, 
indeed, is not so much an ordeal applied as a 
test as it is an oath of purgation ; it is what an 
ordeal in its most solemn and dignified concep- 
tion has been defined to be — an oath in which 
the curse invoked is expected to follow imme- 
diately. As compared with many barbarous 
tests which were in use in Europe up to com- 
paratively recent times — tests in which escape 
from false accusation was next to impossible, or 
which gave to malice opportunities for judicial 
murder — this simple ordeal is remarkably hu- 
mane. For the innocent person it is entirely 
harmless. At the same time, with its solemn 
oath-taking and its threat of mysterious disease 
divinely inflicted, it is an ordeal which a guilty 
' person would scarcely have the hardihood to 



28 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. V. 



16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set 
her before the Lord : 

17 And the priest shall take holy water iu an 
earthen vessel ; and of the dust that is in the floor 
of the tabernacle the piiest shall take, and put it 
into the water : 

18 And the priest shall set the woman before the 
Lord, and uncover the woman's head, and put the 
offering of memorial in her hands, which is the 
jealousy offering : and the priest shall have in his 
hand the bitter water that causeth the curse : 

19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, 
and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with 
thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to unclean- 
ness with another instead of thy husband, be thou 
free from this bitter water that causeth the curse : 

20 But if tliou hast gone aside to another instead 
of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some 
man have lain with thee beside thine husband : 

21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with 
an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto 
the woman. The Lord make thee a curse and an 
oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make 
thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell ; 

22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go 
into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy 
thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, 
amen. 

23 And the priest shall write these curses in a 
book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter 
water : 

24 And he shall cause the woman to drink the 
bitter water that causeth the curse : and the water 
that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and 
become bitter. 

25 Then the priest shall take the jealousy offer- 
ing out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the 
offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the 
altar : 



16 bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the 
priest shall bring her near, and set her before 

17 the Lord : and the priest shall take holy water 
in an earthen vessel ; and of the dust that is on 
the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, 

18 and put it into the water : and the priest shall 
set the woman before the Lord, and let the 
hair of the woman's head go loose, and put the 
meal offering of memorial in her hands, which 
is the meal offering of jealousy : and the priest 
shall have iu his hand the water of bitterness 

19 that causeth the curse: and the priest shall 
cause her to swear, and shall say unto the 
woman. If no man have lien with thee, and if 
thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness, being 
under thy husband, be thou free from this water 

20 of bitterness that causeth the curse : but if thou 
hast gone aside, being under thy husband, and 
if thou be defiled, and some man have lien with 

21 thee besides thine husband : then the priest 
shall cause the woman to swear with the oath 
of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the 
woman. The Lord make thee a curse and an 
oath among thj- people, when the Lord doth 
make thy thigh to fall away, and thy belly to 

22 swell; and this water that' causeth "the curse 
shall go into thj- bowels, and make thy belly to 
swell, and thy "thigh to fall away: "and the 

23 woman shall say, Amen, Amen. And the priest 
shall write these curses in a book, and he shall 

24 blot them, out into the water of bitterness : and 
he shall make the woman drink the water of 
bitterness that causeth the curse : and the water 
that causeth the curse shall enter into her and 

25 become bitter. And the priest shall take the 
meal offering of jealousy out of the Avoman's 
hand, and shall wave the meal offering before 



brave. The suspected woman is brought by her 
husband to the priest with a nnjrp, minchah, or 
meal offering, consisting of barley meal, a coarse, 
cheap food, unaccompanied by oil or incense, as 
it is a minchah not expressing fellowship, but 
bringing sin to remembrance. The priest sol- 
emnly places her before Jehovah and loosens 
the locks of her head. Then as she holds the 
minchah of memorial in her hand, the priest 
holding in his hands a "water of bitterness 
that causeth a curse," which he has prepared of 
holy water mingled with dust of the sanctuary 
floor, solemnly administers to her the " oath of 
cursing," bidding her be unharmed in case she 
is innocent, but imprecating the divine curse 
in case she is guilty, to which she responds, 
" Amen, amen." The curse is then written in 
a book and blotted into the water of bitterness ; 
the " memorial " of the meal offering is burned 
on the altar, and then the woman is made to 
drink the water impregnated with the ink of 
the written curse. The expectation of the law 
is that if the woman is guilty the consequences 
will miraculously follow as imprecated in the 
curse, and thus the truth will be brought to light. 
In common with the forms of ordeal appear- 
ing in the history of other nations, this test is 
an appeal to a miraculous interposition for the 
establishing of the person's guilt or innocence. 



But in the application of the test it is to be ob- 
served that it is not innocence which is to be 
established, but guilt which is to be brought to 
light, by supernatural agency. In other words, 
instead of a miracle of deliverance it is a mir- 
acle of judgment. To require a miracle of an 
innocent person is to throw the weight of 
chances overwhelmingly on the side of con- 
demnation, while to require the miracle on the 
side of guilt is to increase the chance of acquittal. 
This law, so far from being a mark of barbar- 
ism and the unfeeling degradation of woman, 
was rather a most beneficent means for estab- 
lishing the suspected wife's innocence and so 
preserving the integrity of the family. Among 
the Jews, especially under rabbinical teaching, 
divorces were very hasty and arbitrary. As the 
establishment of cities of refuge tended to miti- 
gate the evils of the practice of private ven- 
geance, so the use of this ordeal, just in propor- 
tion as husbands had faith in its verdict, would 
tend to lessen the frequency and injustice of that 
custom of divorce which the law was obliged 
to allow on account of the hardness of men's 
hearts. The punishment for adultery was 
death (Lev. 20 -. 10) ; but without being able to 
prove the crime many a jealous husband would 
be content to put away his wife and so break up 
his family. Once fallen under her husband's 



Ch. VI.] 



NUMBERS 



29 



26 And the priest shall take an handful of the 
offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it 
upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the 
woman to drink the water. 

27 And when he hath made her to drink the 
water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be de- 
filed, and have done trespass against her husband, 
that the water that causeth the curse shall enter 
into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall 
swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman 
shall be a curse among her people. 

28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be 
clean ; then she shall be free, and shall conceive 
seed. 

29 This is the law of jealousies, when a wife 
goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and 
is defiled ; 

30 Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon 
him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set 
the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall 
execute upon her all this law. 

31 Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, 
and this woman shall bear her iniquity. 



26 the Lord, and bring it unto the altar: and the 
priest shall take an handful of the meal offer- 
ing, as the memorial thereof, and burn it upon 
the altar, and afterward shall make the woman 

27 drink the water. And when he hath made her 
drink the water, then it shall come to pass, if she 
be defiled, and have committed a trespass against 
her husband, that the water that causeth the 
curse shall enter into her and become bitter, and 
her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall fall 
away: and the woman shall be a curse among 

28 her people. And if the woman be not defiled, 
but be clean ; then she shall be free, and shall 

29 conceive seed. This is the law of jealousy, 
when a wife, being under her husband, goeth 

30 aside, and is defiled ; or when the spirit of 
jealousy cometh upon a man, and he be jealous 
over his wife ; then shall he set the woman 
before the Lord, and the priest shall execute 

31 upon her all this law. And the man shall be 
free from Iniquity, and that woman shall bear 
her iniquity. 



CHAPTER VI. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them. When either man or woman shall separate 
themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate 
themselves unto the Lord : 

3 He shall separate himselj from wine and strong 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them. When either man or woman shall make a 
special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate 

3 himself unto the Lord: he shall separate him- 
self from wine and strong drink ; he shall drink 



suspicion, the woman would find it extremely 
difficult to prove her innocence. This ordeal 
simply leaves the fact to the verdict of God. 
By refusing to undergo the test the woman 
would virtually confess the crime ; while for 
the sake, if possible, of regaining her husband's 
confidence how many a faithful and heart-broken 
wife would welcome the opportunity of estab- 
lishing her innocence by the oath of purga- 
tion. In many cases, where the jealousy of the 
husband was not altogether senseless and wicked, 
it may be presumed that the peace and happi- 
ness of families was restored by this solemn 
test. In view of this obvious probability the 
law appears not degrading to womanhood, but 
humane and tending to the amelioration of the 
customs of the people. 

The consequence of the observance of this 
law, as given in ver. 31, is that the man 
shall be guiltless from iniquity, and 
this woman shall bear her iniquity. 
The man is certainly kept guiltless from ini- 
quity if he is prevented from unjustly divorcing 
his wife ; and he is freed from doubtful self- 
accusation if he finds that he had indubitable 
reason for his jealousy. The woman "bears 
her iniquity," i. e., she stands vindicated or con- 
demned according to her own divinely revealed 
desert, and not according to the doubtful suspi- 
cions or opinions of others. 



Chap. 6. The law of the Nazarite, 

AND THE FORMULA FOR THE PRIESTLY BENE- 
DICTION. This is the only place in the law 



where the Nazarite is taken notice of. There 
are several examples mentioned in the Bible of 
vows more or less resembling the Nazarite vow, 
these vows being of two kinds, those taken for 
life and those taken for a temporary period. It 
is the latter kind alone that is considered here. 

1-12. A Nazarite means one separated or con- 
secrated. The form in which the law of the 
Nazarite is introduced indicates that the law- 
giver is not creating or inculcating a custom, 
but recognizing an impulse in the religious mind 
which is often led to express itself in vows of 
special consecration, bringing these under the 
cognizance of the priest, and prescribing their 
orderly manner of fulfillment and completion. 
The disposition to make such vows is taken as a 
matter of course. ' ' The law is simply an attempt 
at a late stage of Israel's history to regulate an 
institution that has grown up independently of 
it" (Hastings, "Bib. Diet."). 

There has in all ages existed among those of 
more enthusiastic temperament that species of 
religious feeling which could satisfy itself only 
in some voluntary self-dedication to God beyond 
the requirements of obligation, and beyond the 
everyday possibilities of secular life. Several 
instances are given in the Bible of the Nazarite 
vow, or a vow partaking of some of its features, 
as a life-vow, assumed indeed on behalf of the 
child by the parents before his birth, as in the 
case of Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. 
In this place the vow is described only in its 
temporary and perhaps stricter form, and its 
termination is treated, not as its weak abandon- 



30 



KUMBEHS 



[Ch. VI. 



driuk, and shall driuk no vinegar of wine, or vine- 
gar of strong drink, neitlit-r shall he drink any 
liquor of grapes, nor eat nioibt grapes, or driud. 

4 All the days of his separation shall he eat noth- 
ing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels 
even to the husk. 

5 All the days of the vow of his separation there 
shall no razor come upon his head : until the days 
be fulfilled, in the which he separated himself unto 
the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks 
of the hair of his head grow. 

6 All the days that he separateth himsdjvjito the 
Lord he shall come at no dead body. 

7 He shall not make himself unclean for his 
father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his 
sister, when they die : because the consecration of 
his God is upon his head. 

8 All the days of his separation he is holy unto 
the Lord. 

9 And if any man die very suddenly by him, and 
he hath defile"d the head of his consecration ; then 
he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, 
on the seventh day shall he shave it. 

10 And on the 'eighth day he shall bring two 
turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the 
door of the tabernacle of the congregation : 

11 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin of- 
fering, and the other lor a burnt offering, and 
make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by 
the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. 

12 And he shall consecrate unto the Lord the 
days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of 
the first year for a trespass offering: but the days 
that were before shall be lost, because his separa- 
tion was defiled. 



no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, 
neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor 

4 eat fresh grapes or dried'. All the days of his 
separation shall he eat nothing that is'made of 
the grape-vine, from the kernels even to the 

5 husk. All the days of his vow of separation 
there shall no razor come upon his head : until 
the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth 
himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, he shall 
let the locks of the hair of his head grow long. 

6 All the days that he separateth himself unto the 
Lord he shall not come near to a dead body. 

7 He shall notmake himself unclean for his father, 
or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sis- 
ter, when they die : because his separation unto 

8 God is upon his head. Allthedays of hissepara- 

9 tion he is holy unto the Lord. And if any man 
die very suddenly beside him, and he defile the 
head of his separation ; then he shall shave his 
head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh 

10 day shall he shave it. And on the eighth day 
he shall bring two turtledoves, or two young 
pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tent of 

11 meeting : and the priest shall offer one for a sin 
offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and 
make atonement for him, for that he sinned by 
reason of the dead, and shall hallow his head 

12 that same day. And he shall separate unto the 
Lord the days of his separation, and shall bring 
a he-lamb o'f the first year for a guilt offering: 
but the former days shall be void, because bis 
separation was defiled. 



ment, but as its natural culmination, or occasion 
for sacrifices as a part of the vow itself. 

Any form of sanctity adopted simply to sepa- 
rate or distinguish the person from other men is 
from a rational point of view more or less arbi- 
trary and artificial. The professionally holy 
man is by his very separateness robbed to some 
degree of his common usefulness and helpful 
sympathy with ordinary life. His influence as 
a consecrated person is that of a witness or re- 
minder of the claims of a higher life, rather than 
of a preeminent helper in the sphere of this 
life. Such schemes of voluntaiy holiness gen- 
erally embody as their distinctive features one 
or more of three essential elements : some form 
of abstinence from the pleasures of life, some 
distinctive mark or visible token of sanctity, 
and the strict avoidance of what is recognized as 
defiling. These three elements are embodied 
in the vow of the Xazarite. He is to abstain 
from the grape, the accepted symbol of pleasure 
and luxuiy — not only from its intoxicating wine 
but from the fresh or dried fruit, or anything 
prepared from the grape " from seeds to skin " 
(ver. 4). This element in the conception of supe- 
rior sanctity may be a reminiscence of the old 
nomadic life, thought of as a more "golden" 
or exemplary age than the later and more lux- 
urious times in Canaan which was characteris- 
tically a land of vines. All the days of his 
separation he is to allow no razor to come upon 
his head, but is to make great the free growth of 



the hair of his head (^er. 5). The hair seems to 

be taken not only as the visible badge, but in a 
sense as the seat of the person's consecration ; 
his vow centers, so to speak, in his head. He 
is to abstain from defilement because "the 
separation of his God " ("^er. "), or, as some would 
translate, the "diadem of his God," is on his 
head. The employment of the same Hebrew 
term in this connection as that used to designate 
the priest's diadem may possibly indicate that 
in the mind of the lawgiver there is a sort of 
identity between the two ; as the priest's diadem 
was the mark of " holiness to the Lord," so the 
Xazarite's diadem of unshorn locks was the 
badge of a similar consecration. An accidental 
death near him defiles the head of his separation 
(ver. 9) J and when he renews his vow he is to 
" hallow his head" (^er. ii). The symbolism of 
the uncut locks has received many conjectural 
explanations. I take it that as simple and 
obvious an impression as any produced by the 
Xazarite's personal appearance woidd be that 
he was honoring God and his work by lening 
himself be as near as possible as God made him. 
As abstinence from the grape was a witnessing 
against luxury, so letting the hair grow was a 
witnessing against artificiality and the modish 
interference with God's work. 

The third feature of the Xazarite vow was the 
rigid avoidance of defilement from the dead. 
The Xazarite was not to approach the " soul of 
one dead" (^er. 6), and his abstinence from the 



Ch. VI.] 



NUMBERS 



31 



13 And this is the law of the Nazarite, when the 
days of his separation are fulfilled : he shall be 
brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the 
congregation : 

14 And he shall offer his offering unto the Lord, 
one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a 
burnt offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year 
without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram 
without blemish for peace offerings, 

15 And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine 
flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened 
bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering, 
and their drink offerings. 

16 And the priest shall bring them before the 
Lord, and shall offer his sin offering, and his burnt 
offering : 

17 And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of 
peace offerings unto the Lord, with the basket of 
unleavened bread : the priest shall offer also his 
meat offering, and his drink offering 

18 And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his 
separation at the door of the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation, and shall take the hair of the head of 
his separation, and put it in the fire which is under 
the sacrifice of the peace offerings. 

19 And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder 
of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the 
basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put 
them upon the hands of the Nazarite, after the hair 
of his separation is shaven : 

20 And the priest shall wave them for a wave of- 
fering before the Lord : this is holy for the priest, 
with the wave breast and heave shoulder: and 
after that the Nazarite may drink wine. 



13 And this is the law of the Nazirite, when the 
days of his separation are fulfilled : he shall be 
brought unto the door of the tent of meeting : 

14 and he shall offer his oblation unto the Lord, 
one he-lamb of the first year without blem.ish 
for a burnt offering, and one ewe-lamb of the 
first year without blemish for a sin offering, and 
one ram without blemish for peace offerings, 

15 and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine 
flour mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers 
anointed with oil, and their meal offering, and 

16 their drink offerings. And the priest shall pre- 
sent them before the Lord, and shall offer his 

17 sin ofl"ering, and his burnt offering : and he shall 
offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings 
unto the Lord, with the basket of unleavened 
bread : the priest shall offer also the meal ofter- 

18 ing thereof, and the drink offering thereof. And 
the Nazirite shall shave the head of his separa- 
tion at the door of the tent of meeting, and shall 
take the hair of the head of his separation, and 
put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of 

19 peace offerings. And the priest shall take the 
sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened 
cake out of the basket, and one unleavened 
wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the 
Nazirite, after he hath shaven the head of his 

20 separation : and the priest shall wave them for 
a wave offering before the Lord ; this is holy for 
the priest, together with the wave breast and 
heave thigh: and after that the Nazirite may 



common service of making one's self unclean 
for members of the family when dead was to be 
like that of the high priest (Lev. 21 : 11). If a 
person should die suddenly near him lie was to 
proceed as having broken his vow. On the 
seventh day, the day of his cleansing, he was to 
shave his head ; and the next day he was to 
bring to the priest two doves or two young 
pigeons, the one of which the priest would offer 
for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offer- 
ing, and was to reconsecrate his head that day. 
By a guilt offering of a male lamb he was to in- 
dicate that he had trespassed by " defiling his 
separation," and the time which had already 
elapsed in the fulfillment of his vow was to count 
for nothing. 

13-21. The Nazarite vow was naturally taken 
for a given period, and the only mentions of it as 
a voluntary obligation are in connection with 
the ceremonies attending its termination. As 
assumed by parents for their children for the 
whole life the vow seems not to have embodied 
its most exacting feature, namely, the strict 
avoidance of contact with the dead. At least 
Samson in his free handling of lions' car- 
cases and jawbones (Judg. 14 : 8, 9; 15 : 15) seems 
to have shown the common indifference to such 
defilement, and perhaps Samuel also in his 
treatment of Agag (1 Sam. 15 : 33). 

Of the three offerings that are prescribed to 
be offered when the vow has matured, the sin 
offering is to be offered first, as paving the way 



by the removal of guilt for the self-consecration 
expressed by the burnt offering and the com- 
munion with Jehovah expressed by the peace 
offering. As prescribed in Lev. 4, the sin offering 
covers for the awakened conscience any possible 
cases of unintentional transgression. The Naz- 
arite vow as expressing a higher than usual 
grade of consecration would also indicate a 
more sensitive state of the conscience ; so that 
the completion and retrospect of the holiest pe- 
riod would be the fullest of the sense of short- 
coming. The best men are the readiest to feel 
and acknowledge sin. Hence the sin offering is a 
very characteristic feature of the Nazarite vow. 
Having stilled the apprehensions of a sensi- 
tive conscience, the Nazarite by an offering still 
more characteristic of this period of completion 
expresses that happy sense of communion with 
God and enjoyment of his favor which accom- 
panies the feeling of having accomplished some- 
thing pleasing to him. The peace offering 
banquet with the priest is observed in its full 
elaborateness, not omitting the boiled shoulder 
consecrated to the use of the priest by waving, 
not, however, until the Nazarite has marked the 
termination of his vow by shaving his head and 
offering the hair on the fire that consumes the 
"memorial " of the peace offerings. The offer- 
ings which were obligatory, besides any free- 
will offering which the zealous vower, accord- 
ing to his means, might be disposed to give — 
literally, what his hand attains (ver. 21) — were 



32 



NUMBERS 



21 This is the law of the Nazarite who hath 
vowed, and of his uUering unto the Lord for his 
separation, beside that that liis hand shall get : ac- 
cording to the vow which he vowed, so he must 
do after the law of his separation. 

22 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

23 Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, 
On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, 
saying unto them, 

24 The Lord bless thee, and keep thee : 

25 The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and 
be gracious unco thee : 

26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, 
and give thee peace. 

27 And they shall put my name upon the chil- 
dren of Israel ; and I will bless them. 



[Ch. VII. 

21 drink wine. This is the law of the Nazirite who 
voweth, and of his oblation unto the Lord for 
his separation, beside that which he is able to 
get : according to his vow which he voweth, so 
he must do after the law of his separation. 

22 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

23 Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying. On 
this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel ; 
ye shall say unto them, 

24 The Lord bless thee, and keep thee : 

25 The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, 
and be gracious unto thee : 

26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, 
and give thee peace. 

27 So shall they put my name upon the children 
of Israel ; and I will bless them. 



CHAPTER VII. 



1 AND it came to pass on the day that Moses 
had fully set up the tabernacle, and had anointed 
it, and sanctified it, and all the instruments thereof, 
both the altar and all the vessels thereof, and had 
anointed them, and sanctified them ; 

2 That the princes of Israel, heads of the house 
of their fathers, who were the princes of the tribes, 
and were over them that were numbered, offered : ' 



somewhat elaborate and expensive, and it was 
regarded as an act of piety and charity to help 
some poor man free himself from his vow by- 
sharing his charges (cf. Acts 21 : 23, seq. ; Josephus, Ant., 
XIX., 6 : 1 ; 1 Mace. 3 : 49) . 

22-27. The priestly benediction. The func- 
tion of blessing in the name of Jehovah was 
the distinctive point which marked the pre- 
rogative of the priest. This was the first priestly 
act which Aaron performed when his consecra- 
tion was completed (Lev. 9 : 22). In Deuteronomy 
it is named as the characteristic function of the 
priestly tribe of Levi (oeut. 10 : 8), Here the 
formula to be used in this solemn priestly serv- 
ice is prescribed ; and so strikingly beautiful and 
comprehensive is this unique form of blessing 
that it became for the devout a sort of compen- 
dium of all the good which could be desired of 
the Lord for his people (eccIus. se : n ; ps. 4:6), It 
consists of three pairs of clauses, in each of 
which the second verb defines more closely the 
idea introduced by the first. There is the wish 
for a divine blessing which more specifically 
embodies itself in protection ; there is the wish 
for the shining of the divine countenance, or 
God's radiant smile, which issues in favor or 
grace ; and there is the wish for a lifting up of 
the face, or divine attention, which gives peace. 
This is so like the love of God, and the grace of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the covimunion — 
the distinctive feeling of the peace offering — of 
the Holy Spirit, expressed in the apostolic bene- 
diction (2 Cor. 13 : 14) that Christian writers have 
very generally felt that here was a sort of fore- 
shadowing of the distinct offices of the three 
persons of the Trinity, and so a sort of divine 
prophecy of that characteristic Christian doc- 



AND it came to pass on the day that Moses 
had made an end of setting up the tabernacle, 
and had anointed it and sanctified it, and all 
the furniture thereof, and the altar, and all 
the vessels thereof, and had anointed them 
aud sanctified them ; that the princes of Is- 
rael, the heads of their fathers' houses, of- 
fered ; these were the princes of the tribes, these 



trine. Without exercising our ingenuity un- 
duly in finding curious coincidences between 
the germinal ideas of the Old Testament and 
the developed doctrines of the New, we may at 
least say this much : that when the right and 
sane religious instinct puts forth its wish it de- 
sires of God all the forms of good which we 
think of as coming from the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Spirit ; so that any comprehensive 
expression for the full prayer of humanity 
would be capable of analysis into something 
like a foregleam of the Trinity, The defined doc- 
trine of the Christian church, when rightly un- 
derstood, is but the crystallization of what exists 
in solution in all right religious feeling ; and 
prophecy as pointing forward to Christ is but 
the just disclosure of the eternal heart of 
humanity made vocal in the presence of God. 

The use of the prescribed benediction was the 
official putting of the name of Jehovah on the 
children of Israel which, when done according 
to its true intent, had the promise of his bless- 
ing (ver. 27). 



Chap. 7. The offerings of the twelve 

PEINCES OF THE TRIBES AT THE CONSECRA- 
TION OF THE TENT OF MEETINO AND OF THE 
ALTAR. 1-11. This section relates to that part 
of the offering of the princes which was appar- 
ently presented together, or at least received col- 
lectively and placed at the disposal of the three 
families that carried the tabernacle. 1. On 
the day, i. e., at the time, the word "day" 
being used in its less strict meaning, as in Gen. 
2 : 4. The actions of the princes in this chapter 
seem to presuppose what has been related in the 
first four chapters of this book — their appoint- 



Ch. VIL] 



NUMBERS 



33 



3 And they brought their offering before the 
Lord, six covered wagons, and twelve oxen ; a 
wagon for two of the princes, and for each one an 
ox : and they brought them before the tabernacle. 

4 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

5 Take it of them, that they may be to do the 
service of the tabernacle of the congregation ; and 
thou Shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man 
according to his service. 

6 And Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and 
gave them unto the Levites. 

7 Two wagons and four oxen he gave unto the 
sons of Gershon, according to their service : 

8 And four wagons and eight oxen he gave unto 
the sons of Merari, according unto their service, 
under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the 
priest. 

9 But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none: 
because the service of the sanctuary belonging 
unto them was that they should bear upon their 
shoulders. 

10 And the princes offered for dedicating of the 
altar in the day that it was anointed, even the 
princes offered their offering before the altar. 

11 And the Lord said unto Moses, They shall offer 
their offering, each prince on his day, for the 
dedicating of the altar. 

12 And he that offered his offering the first day 
was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe 
of Judah : 

13 And his offering was one silver charger, the 
weight thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, 
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel 
of the sanctuary ; both of them were full of fine 
flour mingled with oil for a meat offering : 

14 One spoon of ten shekels of gold, full of in- 
cense : 

15 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

16 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

17 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, 
five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first year : 
this was the offering of Nahshon the son of Am- 
minadab. 

18 On the second day Nethaneel the son of Zuar, 
prince of Issachar, did offer : 



are they that were over them that were num- 

3 bered : and they brought their oblation before 
the Lord, six covered wagons, and twelve oxen ; 
a wagon for every two of the princes, and for 
each one an ox : and they presented them be- 

4 fore the tabernacle. And the Lord spake unto 

5 Moses, saying. Take it of them, that they may 
be to do the service of the tent of meeting ; and 
thou Shalt give them unto the Levites, to every 

6 man according to his service. And Moses took 
the wagons and the oxen, and gave them unto 

7 the Levites. Two wagons and four oxen he 
gave unto the sons of Gershon, according to 

8 their service : and four wagons and eight oxen 
he gave unto the sons of Merari, according unto 
their service, under the hand of Ithamar the son 

9 of Aaron the priest. But unto the sons of Ko- 
hath he gave none : because the service of the 
sanctuary belonged unto them ; they bare it 

10 upon their shoulders. And the princes offered 
for the dedication of the altar in the day that it 
was anointed, even the princes offered their ob- 

11 lation before the altar. And the Lord said unto 
Moses, They shall offer their oblation, each 
prince on his day, for the dedication of the 
altar. 

12 And he that offered his oblation the first day 
was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the 

13 tribe of Judah : and his oblation was one silver 
charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and 
thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shek- 
els, after the shekel of the sanctuary ; both of 
them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a 

14 meal offering ; one golden spoon of ten shekels, 

15 full of incense ; one young bullock, one ram, 
one he-lamb of the first year, for a burnt offer- 

16 ing ; one male of the goats for a sin offering ; 

17 and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, 
five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first 
year : this was the oblation of Nahshon the son 
of Amminadab. 

18 On the second day Nethanel the son of Zuar, 



ment as superintendents of the census (ver. 2 ; cf 
1:5), the necessities attending the work of 
transporting the tabernacle (ver. 3, 6 ; cf. 4 : 24-26^ 
31-33) — and yet their gifts purport to have been 
presented at the time of the dedication of the 
tabernacle, one month before the census veas 
ordered, or the duties of the Levites assigned 

(see Exod. 40 : 17 ; Lev. 8 : 10, 11 ; cf. Num. 1 : l) . We Cau 

only note this incongruity without explaining 
its origin. 

Each two of the princes jointly gave a wagon, 
making six wagons in all ; and each prince 
gave an ox, making six yoke of oxen or teams 
to draw them. Because the word translated 
covered, in ver. 3, is used in Isa. 66 : 20 and 
rendered litters, it has been supposed by some 
that the vehicles were wheelless litters borne 
each by two oxen before and behind, but the 
more probable inference from the derivation of 
the word is that they were covered carts. Two 
of these vehicles with their complement of oxen 
were assigned to the family of Gershon for trans- 
porting the cloth work of the tabernacle, while 
double the number were given to the Merarites 



for transporting the heavy pillars and boards 
constituting its solid framework. The sacred 
articles of furniture which the Kohathites car- 
ried were furnished with rings and poles and 
were carried on the shoulders of men. 

The more solemn and specific gift of each 
prince for the dedication of the altar (ver. ii) was 
arranged to be offered each on its day during 
twelve days. The great number of oxen and 
sheep and goats constituting the total of their 
offerings could hardly have been disposed of in 
the limited area of the tabernacle court and on 
the one altar, if the attempt had been made to 
receive and sacrifice the burnt offerings and 
the "memorial" of the peace offerings all in 
one day. 

12-83. The offerings of the preceding section 
were such as supplied a perceivable need in 
connection with the transportation of the sanc- 
tuary. These individual offerings, on the other 
hand, seem to be a purely gratuitous expression 
of loyalty and praise rather than the subserving 
of an obvious utility. They seem to be a shin- 
ing instance of unsolicited liberality, not unac- 



34 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. VII. 



19 He offered fur his offering one silver charger, 
the weight whereof u;a6 an iiuudred aud thirty 
shekels, oue silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the 
shekel of the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine 
flour mingled with oil for a meat offering : 

20 One spoon of gold of ten shekels, full of in- 
cense : 

21 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

22 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

23 Aud for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two 
oxen, five rajns, five he goats, five lambs of the first 
year : this was the offering of Nethaueel the son of 
Zuar. 

24 On the third day Eliab the son of Helen, prince 
of the children of Zebulun, did offer : 

25 His offering was one silver charger, the weight 
whereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one 
silver bowl of seventy shekels, after "the shekel of 
the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour 
mingled with oil for a meat offering : 

26 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 

27 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

28 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

29 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two 
oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first 
year : this was the offering of Eliab the son of 
Helon. 

30 On the fourth day Elizur the son of Shedeur, 
prince of the children of Reuben, did offer: 

31 His offering was one silver charger of the 
weight of an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver 
bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 
with oil for a meat offering : 

32 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 

33 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

34 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

35 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two 
oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first 
year : this was the offering of Elizur the son of 
Shedeur. 

36 On the fifth day Shelumiel the son of Zuri- 
shaddai, prince of the children of Simeon, did offer : 

37 His offering ivas one silver charger, the weight 
whereof ivas an hundred and thirty shekels, one 
silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of 
the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour 
mingled with oil for a meat offering : 

38 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 

39 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year,*for a burnt offering : 

40 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

41 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two 
oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first 
year : this was the offering of Shelumiel the son of 
Zurishaddai. 

42 On the sixth day Eliasaph the son of Deuel, 
prince of the children of Gad, offered : 

43 His offering was one silver charger of the 
weight of an hundred and thirty shekels, a silver 
bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 



19 prince of Issachar, did offer : he offered for his 
oblation one silver charger, the weight thereof 
was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver 
bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 

20 with oil for a meal oft'ering ; one golden spoon 

21 of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young bul- 
lock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for 

22 a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a sin 

23 offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, 
two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs 
of the first year : this was the oblation of Ne- 
thanel the son of Zuar. 

24 On the third day Eliab the son of Helon, 

25 prince of the children of Zebulun : his oblation 
was one silver charger, the weight thereof was 
an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of 
seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanc- 
tuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 

26 with oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon 

27 of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young bul- 
lock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for 

28 a burnt offering ; one male of the goats 'for a sin 

29 offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, 
two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs 
of the first year : this was the oblation of Eliab 
the son of Helon. 

30 On the fourth day Elizur the son of Shedeur, 

31 prince of the children of Reuben : his oblation 
was one silver charger, the weight thereof was 
an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of 
seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanc- 
tuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 

32 with oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon 

33 of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young bul- 
lock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for 

34 a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a sin 

35 offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, 
two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs 
of the first year : this was the oblation of Elizur 
the son of Shedeur. 

36 On the fifth day Shelumiel the son of Zurishad- 

37 dai, prince of the children of Simeon : his obla- 
tion was one silver charger, the weight thereof 
was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver 
bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour min- 

38 gled with oil for a meal offering ; one golden 

39 spoon of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young 
bullock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, 

40 for a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a 

41 sin offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offer- 
ings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he- 
lambs of the first year : this was the oblation of 
Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 

42 On the sixth day Eliasaph the son of Deuel, 

43 prince of the children of Gad : his oblation was 
one silver charger, tne weight thereof was an 
hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of 



companied with the religious feeling which 
realized the need of a sin offering and sought 
expression in the burnt and peace offerings. 
•Such forthputtings of grateful loyalty, like the 
offering of Mary in the Gospels (Mark u -. 3-9) , are 
among the choicest fruits of religion. Evidently 
there was some systematic understanding be- 
tween the princes, or the tribes which they rep- 
resented, so that all brought precisely similar 
gifts. The stoiy of the offering is repeated 
twelve times in detail, in identical words — an 
unnecessary and yet stately repetition which no 



doubt was a grateful rhetorical help to the He- 
brew's imagination in parading the princely 
gifts before his thought for the exercise of his 
admiration, just as the printing, in Hebrew, of 
the names of Haman's sons in rows (Esthers : 7-10), 
as if hanged, in a similar way furnished a sort 
of graphical satisfaction to his hatred. 

Each prince offered a silver charger of one 
hundred and thirty shekels' weight, worth 
about eighty-four dollars, and a silver bowl or 
sprinkling dish of seventy shekels' weight, 
worth something over forty-five dollars, each of 



Ch. VIL] 



NUMBERS 



35 



sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 
with oil for a meat offering : 

44 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 

45 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

46 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

47 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, 
five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first year : 
this was the offering of Eliasaph the son of Deuel. 

48 On the seventh day Elishama the son of Am- 
mihud, prince of the children of Ephraim, offered : 

49 His offering was one silver charger, the weight 
whereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one 
silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of 
the sanctuary; both of them full of fine fiour 
mingled with oil for a meat offering : 

50 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 

51 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

52 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

53 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, 
five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first year : 
this was the offering of Elishama the son of Am- 
mihud. 

54 On the eighth day offered Gamaliel the son of 
Pedahzur, prince of the children of Manasseh : 

55 His offering was one silver charger of the 
weight of an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver 
bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 
with oil for a meat offering : 

56 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 

57 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year," for a burnt offering : 

58 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

59 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two 
oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambsof the first 
year: this tyas the offering of Gamaliel the son of 
Pedahzur. 

60 On the ninth day Abidan the son of Gideoni, 
prince of the children of Benjamin, offered : 

61 His offering was one silver charger, the weight 
whereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one sil- 
ver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 
with oil for a meat offering : 

62 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 

63 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

64 One kid of tlie goats for a sin offering : 

65 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two 
oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the 
first year : this tvas the offering of Abidan the son 
of Gideoni. 

66 On the tenth day Ahiezer the son of Ammi- 
Bhaddai, prince of the children of Dan, offered: 

67 His offering was one silver charger, the weight 
whereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one sil- 
ver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine fiour mingled 
with oil for a meat offering: 

68 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 

69 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

70 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

71 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two 
oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first 
year : this was the offering of Ahiezer, the son of 
Ammishaddai. 

72 On the eleventh day Pagiel the son of Ocran, 
prince of the children of Asher, offered ; 

73 His offering was one silver charger, the weight 
whereof ivas an hundred and thirty shekels, one sil- 
ver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 
with oil for a meat offering : 

74 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 



seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanc- 
tuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 

44 with oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon 

45 of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young bullock, 
one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for a 

46 burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a sin 

47 offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, 
two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs 
of the first year : this was the oblation of Elia- 
saph the son of Deuel. 

48 On the seventh day Elishama the son of Am- 

49 mihud, prince of the children of Ephraim : his 
oblation was one silver charger, the weight 
thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one 
silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the sliekel 
of the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine fiour 

50 mingled with oil for a meal offering ; one golden 

51 spoon of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young 
bullock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, 

52 for a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a 

53 sin offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offer- 
ings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he- 
lambs of the first year : this was the oblation of 
Elishama the son of Ammihud. 

54 On the eighth day Gamaliel the son of Pe- 

55 dahzur, prince of the children of Manasseh : his 
oblation was one silver charger, the weight 
thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one 
silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel 
of the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour 

56 mingled with oil for a meal offering ; one golden 

57 spoon of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young 
bullock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, 

58 for a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a 

59 sin oft'ering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offer- 
ings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he- 
lambs of the first year: this was the oblation of 
Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 

60 On the ninth day Abidan the son of Gideoni, 

61 prince of the children of Benjamin : his obla- 
tion was one silver charger, the weight thereof 
was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver 
bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour min- 

62 gled with oil for a meal offering ; one golden 

63 spoon of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young 
bullock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, 

64 for a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a 

65 sin offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offer- 
ings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he- 
lambs of the first year : this was the oblation of 
Abidan the son of Gideoni. 

66 On the tenth day Ahiezer the son of Ammi- 

67 shaddai, prince of the children of Dan : his ob- 
lation was one silver charger, the weight thereof 
was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver 
bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour min- 

68 gled with oil for a meal offering ; one golden 

69 spoon of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young 
bullock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, 

70 for a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a 

71 sin offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offer- 
ings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he- 
lambs of the first year : this was the oblation of 
Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. 

72 On the eleventh day Pagiel the son of Ochran, 

73 prince of the children of Asher : his oblation 
was one silver charger, the weight thereof was 
an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl 
of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanc- 
tuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 

74 with oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon 



these being filled with fine flour saturated with 
oil for a minchah; and a gold spoon {lit., palm) 
weighing ten shekels, worth nearly ninety-seven 
dollars, filled with incense. Besides these were 



the animals for the burnt, sin, and peace offer- 
ings as enumerated in the text. The princes 
appear to have made their offerings in the order 
assigned to the tribes in the census (ohap. 2). 



ZQ 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. VII. 



75 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

76 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

77 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two 
oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of tlie first 
year: this was the offering of Pagiel the son of 
Ocran. 

78 On the twelfth day Ahira the son of Enan, 
prince of the children of Naphtali, offered : 

79 His offering was one silver charger, the weight 
whereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one sil- 
ver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 
with oil for a meat offering : 

80 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense : 

81 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the 
first year, for a burnt offering : 

82 One kid of the goats for a sin offering : 

83 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two 
oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first 
year: this was the offering of Ahira the son of 
Enan. 

84 This was the dedication of the altar, in the 
day when it was anointed, by the princes of Israel : 
twelve chargers of silver, twelve silver bowls, 
twelve spoons of gold : 

85 Each charger of silver weighing an hundred 
and thirty shekels, each bowl seventy : all the silver 
vessels weighed two thousand and four hundred 
shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary : 

8(5 The golden spoons were twelve, full of in- 
cense, weighing ten shekels apiece, after the shekel 
of the sanctuary : all the gold of the spoons was an 
hundred and twenty shekels. 

87 All the oxen for the burnt offering were twelve 
bullocks, the rams twelve, the lambs of the first 
year twelve, with their meat offering : and the kids 
of the goats for sin ottering twelve. 

88 And all the oxen for the sacrifice of the peace 
offerings were twenty and four bullocks, the rams 
sixty, the he goats sixty, the lambs of the first year 
sixty. This was the dedication of the altar, alter 
that it was anointed. 

89 And when Moses was gone into the taber- 
nacle of the congregation to speak with him, then 
he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from 
off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testi- 
mony, from between the two cherubims : and he 
spake unto him. 



84-88. These verses give the totals of the 
offerings at the dedication of the altar. The ap- 
proximate value of the silver, two thousand four 
hundred shekels, was one thousand five hundred 
and fifty-two dollars, while that of the gold, one 
hundred and twenty shekels, was one thousand 
one hundred and sixty-three dollars and fifty- 
two cents. The presenting of the gifts and the 
sacrificing of the victims in the various species 
of offerings constituted the dedication (lit. the 
imbuing) of the altar, as distinguished from its 
anointing or formal setting apart (^er. 88). 

89. This verse has almost the appearance of 
having dropped out of its connection, as is seen 
in its abrupt change of topic, and the use of the 
pronoun him (referring to Jehovah) without 
an antecedent. Dillmann thinks it comes more 
naturally after Exod. 25 : 22. Speaking. The 
word thus rendered has in Hebrew the reflexive 
form, "making itself audible," the form of the 
word thus illustrating the apparent imperson- 
ality of a voice speaking without visible organs. 



84 



85 



89 



of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young bul- 
lock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, 
for a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a 
sin offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace of- 
ferings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five 
he-lambs of the first year : this was the oblation 
Pagiel the sou of Ochran. 

On the twelfth day Ahira the son of Enan, 
prince of the children of Naphtali: his oblation 
was one silver charger, the weight thereof was 
an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl 
of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanc- 
tuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 
with oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon 
of ten shekels, full of incense ; one young bul- 
lock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for 
a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a sin 
offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, 
two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs 
of the first year : this was the oblation of Ahira 
the son of Enan. 

This was the dedication of the altar, in the 
day when it was anointed, by the princes of Is- 
rael : twelve silver chargers, twelve silver bowls, 
twelve golden spoons : each silver charger weigh- 
ing an hundred and thirty shekels, and each bowl 
seventy : all the silver of the vessels two thou- 
sand and four hundred shekels, after the shekel 
of the sanctuary ; the twelve golden spoons, full 
of incense, weighing ten shekels apiece, after the 
shekel of the sanctuary : all the gold of the 
spoons an hundred and twenty shekels : all the 
oxen for the burnt offering twelve bullocks, the 
rams twelve, the he-lambs of the first year 
twelve, and their meal offering : and the males 
of the goats for a sin offering twelve : and all 
the oxen for the sacrifice of peace offerings 
twenty and four bullocks, the rams sixty, the 
he-goats sixty, the he-Iambs of the first year 
sixty. This was the dedication of the altar, 
after that it was anointed. And when Moses 
went into the tent of meeting to speak with him, 
then he heard the Voice speaking unto him from 
above the mercy-seat that was upon the ark of 
the testimony, from between the two cherubim : 
and he spake unto him. 



The verse as a whole seems to imply that from 
this time forward communication was estab- 
lished between Jehovah and Moses from the 
mercy seat between the cherubim in the tent of 
meeting, as promised in Exod. 25 : 22. This 
fact of Moses' habitual converse with God in the 
tent of meeting seems to have made a very deep 
impression on the Hebrew imagination. He 
was regarded as the unique example of a 
prophet whom the Lord knew face to face (oeut. 
34 : 10) ; in this method of communication he is 
pronounced by Jehovah sui generis (Num. 12 : 7, 8) ; 
those ineffably elevated and intimate transac- 
tions in the tent of appointment were guarded 
by the pillar of cloud standing as a sentinel at 
the door, while all the people at the entrance of 
their tents rose and worshiped as they saw the 
cloudy guardian which indicated that Moses 
was holding audience with Jehovah (Exod. 33 : 
7-11 ) . The luminous appearance of his face as a 
consequence of his direct converse with God 
(Exod. 34 : 30), and his habit of veiling himself 



Ch. VIII.] 



NUMBERS 



37 



CHAPTER VIII 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto Aaron, and say unto him, When 
thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give 
light over against the candlestick. 

3 And Aaron did so ; he lighted the lamps thereof 
over against the candlestick, as the Lord com- 
manded Moses. 

4 And this work of the candlestick was o/ beaten 
gold, unto the shaft thereof, unto the flowers there- 
of, was beaten work : according unto the pattern 
which the Lord had shewed Moses, so he made tlie 
candlestick. 

5 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

6 Take the Levites from among the children of 
Israel, and cleanse them. 

7 And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse 
them : Sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and 
let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash 
their clothes, and so make themselves clean. 

8 Then let them take a young bullock with his 
meat offering, even fine flour mingled with oil, and 
another young bullock shalt thou take for a siu 
offering. 

9 And thou shalt bring the Levites before the 
tabernacle of the congregation : and thou shalt 
gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel 
together: 

10 And thou shalt bring the Levites before the 
Lord : and the children of Israel shall put their 
hands upon the Levites : 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto Aaron, and say unto him. When thou 
lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give 

3 light in front of the candlestick. And Aaron 
did so ; he lighted the lamps thereof so as to give 
light in front of the candlestick, as the Lord 

4 commanded Moses. And this was the work of 
the candlestick, beaten work of gold ; unto the 
base thereof, and unto the flowers thereof, it was 
beaten work : according unto the pattern which 
the Lord had shewed Moses, so he made the 
candlestick. 

5 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

6 Take the Levites from among tlie children of 

7 Israel, and cleanse them. And thus shalt thou 
do unto them, to cleanse them : sprinkle the 
water of expiation upon them, and let them 
cause a razor to pass over all their flesh, and let 
them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves. 

8 Then let them take a young bullock, and its meal 
offering, fine flour mingled with oil, and another 
young bullock shalt thou take for a sin offering. 

9 And thou shalt present the Levites before the 
tent of meeting : and thou shalt assemble the 
whole congregation of the children of Israel : 

10 and thou shalt present the Levites before the 
Lord : and the children of Israel shall lay their 



before the people (ibid., 34, 35)^ are made one of 
the great outstanding facts of ancient revelation 
on which Paul bases a comparison and contrast 
with the final revelation of the New Testament 

(2 Cor. 3 : 13-18). 



Chap. 8. An item of directions eegaed- 

ING THE golden CANDLESTICK. ThE CONSE- 
CEATION OF THE LEVITES, AND THEIR PE- 
RIOD OF SERVICE. 1-4. Instructions for fixing 
the lamps upon the golden candlestick. When 
thou lightest, rather, settest up, as in E. V. 
Marg. This verse is substantially a repetition 
of Exod. 25 : 37, last clause. The purport of the 
direction appears to be that, as the candlestick 
stood on the south side of the sanctuary with its 
branches extending lengthwise of the apart- 
ment, the lamps, which were movable, should 
be so placed on the branches that the exten- 
sion or neck containing the wick should project 
out into the room, so as to throw the light toward 
the north side, i. e., over against the candle- 
stick. The candlestick is described in Exod. 
25 : 31-40, and that part of the description 
which dwells upon its workmanship (ibid., 31, 36) 
is here repeated. The whole was made accord- 
ing to the vision (ver. 4), which Jehovah had 
shown to Moses. The directions for caring for 
the lamps and for providing the supply of oil 
are distributed in various places in the Penta- 
teuch (Exod. 2T : 20 ; 30 : 7 ; Lev. 24 : 1-4)^ bcsidcS this 

place. 

5-32. The consecration of the Levites to their 
chties. This passage connects with 3 : 5-13, 



and describes the actual ceremony of pre- 
senting the Levites to the Lord for the use of 
the priests. This ceremony is not called a 
sanctifying or filling of the hand, as was the 
corresponding ceremony at the consecration of 
the priests (Lev. 8 : 12, 33) J but a cleansing (ver. e). 
The first act of cleansing was to sprinkle them 
with " sin water," and have them shave their 
bodies and wash their clothes. The " sin water " 
in question can hardly have been such a water 
of purifying as was prepared for the leper when 
he was cleansed (Lev. i4 : 4-7), nor the water of 
separation that was prepared from the ashes of 
the red heifer for the cleansing of those who 
were defiled by the dead (Num. 19) , for these seem 
to have been prescribed for the special cases 
mentioned ; but perhaps the water from the 
laver which is apparently called " holy water " 
in 5 : 17. The ceremony of inauguration for 
these subordinate priests did not include the act 
of investiture, as they had no distinctive dress 
as a badge of ofiice. Their clothing was there- 
fore made ready for their new position by 
washing (ver. 7). 

As the Levites were the gift of the whole na- 
tion to the priests, representative of their first- 
born which were claimed by Jehovah, the whole 
congregation w^as assembled to participate in the 
ceremony of consecration. The congregation, 
doubtless through their representatives the 
heads of the tribes, were to lay their hands on 
the heads of the Levites (ver. 10), and then these 
temple servants were solemnly offered as a wave 
offering (ver. ii), the ceremony being performed 



38 



NUMBEKS 



[Ch. VIII. 



11 And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the 
Lord /or an offering of the children of Israel, that 
they may execute the service of the Lord. 

12 And the Levites shall lay their hands upon 
the heads of the bullocks : and thou shalt offer the 
one J'or a sin offering, and the other for a burnt 
offering, unto the Lord, to make an atonement for 
the Levites. 

13 And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, 
and before his sons, and offer them /or an offering 
unto the Lord. 

14 Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from 
among the children of Israel : and the Levites shall 
be mine. 

15 And after that shall the Levites go in to do the 
service of the tabernacle of the congregation : and 
thou shalt cleanse them, and offer them for an 
offering. 

16 For they are wholly given unto me from among 
the children of Israel'; instead of such as open 
every womb, even instead of the firstborn of all the 
children of Israel, have I taken them unto me. 

17 For all the firstborn of the children of Israel 
are mine, both man and beast : on the day that I 
smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanc- 
tified them for myself. 

18 And I have taken the Levites for all the first- 
born of the children of Israel. 

19 And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron 
and to his sons from among the children of Israel, 
to do the service of the children of Israel in the 
tabernacle of the congregation, and to make an 
atonement for the children of Israel : that there be 
no plague among the children of Israel, when the 
children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary. 

20 And Moses, and Aaron, and all the congrega- 
tion of the children of Israel, did to the Levites 
according unto all that the Lord commanded Moses 
concerning the Levites, so did the children of Israel 
unto them. 

21 And the Levites were purified, and they washed 
their clothes ; and Aaron offered them as an offer- 
ing before the Lord ; and Aaron made an atonement 
for them to cleanse them. 

22 And after that went the Levites in to do their 
service in the tabernacle of the congregation before 
Aaron, and before his sons : as the Lord had com- 
manded Moses concerning the Levites, so did they 
unto them. 



11 hands upon the Levites : and Aaron shall offer 
the Levites before the Lord for a wave offering, 
on the behalf of the children of Israel, that they 

12 may be to do the service of the Lord. And the 
Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of 
the bullocks : and offer thou the one for a sin 
offering, and the other for a burnt offering, unto 
the Lord, to make atonement for the Levites. 

13 And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and 
before his sons, and offer them for a wave offer- 

14 ing unto the Lord. Thus shalt thou separate the 
Levites from among the children of Israel : and 

15 the Levites shall be mine. And after that shall 
the Levites go in to do the service of the tent of 
meeting : and thou shalt cleanse them, and offer 

16 them for a wave offering. For they are wholly 
given unto me from among the children of Is- 
rael ; instead of all that opeueth the womb, even 
the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have 

17 I taken them unto me. For all the firstborn 
among the children of Israel are mine, both man 
and beast : on the day that I smote all the first- 
born in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for 

18 myself. And I have taken the Levites instead 
of all the firstborn among the children of Israel. 

19 And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron 
and to his sons from among the children of Is- 
rael, to do the service of the children of Israel 
in the tent of meeting, and to make atonement 
for the children of Israel : that there be no 
plague among the children of Israel, when the 
children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary. 

20 Thus did Moses, and Aaron, and all the congre- 
gation of the children of Israel, unto the Le- 
vites: according unto all that the Lord com- 
manded Moses touching the Levites, so did the 

21 children of Israel unto them. And the Levites 
purified themselves from sin, and they washed 
their clothes ; and Aaron offered them for a wave 
offering before the Lord ; and Aaron made atone- 

22 ment for them to cleanse them. And after that 
went the Levites in to do their service in the 
tent of meeting before Aaron, and before his 
sons : as the Lord had commanded Moses con- 
cerning the Levites, so did they unto them. 



by Aaron on behalf of the children of Israel. 
It will be remembered that the rite of waving 
is that which characterizes the making of such 
oflferings as are presented to Jehovah to revert 
to the use of the priests or the sanctuary. On 
the wave offering, see comment on Lev. 7 : 28- 
34. Just how the act of waving a large com- 
pany of people was performed cannot be stated 
with certainty. Perhaps they were solemnly 
conducted up to the altar and back ; or the act 
may have been emblematically performed by 
Aaron's pointing to them and waving his hands 
as if they were filled with a gift for Jehovah. 
The Levites in their turn, having provided 
themselves with a couple of bullocks with their 
accompanying minchah, ofiered the one for a sin 
offering and the other for a burnt offering, thus 
entering on their office in a state of ceremonial 
freedom from all possible inadvertent guilt. 

This act of consecration is summed up as con- 
sisting essentially of cleansing and waving (ver. 
15) ; the theory of the waving being that they 



are wholly given (D"'J^r>J, nthunim, of. 3 : 9) 
to Aaron and to his sons ; while that of their 
being separated and cleansed in general is that 
they are taken in lieu of the firstborn of Israel 
whom Jehovah consecrated to himself when he 
destroyed the firstborn of Egypt. This service 
of the Levites in the sanctuary is therefore 
strictly the function of the nation's firstborn ; 
but as the service of the holy place is hazard- 
ous on account of the self-avenging sanctity of 
the sacred things, a specially consecrated tribe 
can more safely perform it than for the people 
to undertake that service promiscuously (ver. i9). 
In thus taking the specially sacred and hazardous 
part of the nation's lay duty, the Levites are 
considered as covering, or acting as an atoning 
buffer for them — to make an atonement 
(ver. 19) — in the presence of Jehovah. 

All this ceremony of cleansing and waving is 
given in the form of a command to Moses ; and 
then in ver. 20-22 it is stated that all was carried 
out according to the divine direction. 



Ch. IX.] 



NUMBERS 



39 



23 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

24 This is it that belongeth unto the Levites : from 
twenty and five years old and upward they shall go 
in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the 
congregation : 

25 And from the age of fifty years they shall cease 
waiting upon the service thereof, and shall serve no 
more : 

26 But shall minister with their brethren in the 
tabernacle of the congregation, to keep the charge, 
and shall do no service. Thus shalt thou do unto 
the Levites touching their charge. 



23 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

24 This is that which belongeth unto the Levites : 
from twenty and five years old and upward they 
shall go in to wait upon the service in the work 

25 of the tent of meeting : and from the age of fifty 
years they shall cease waiting upon the work, 

26 and shall serve no more ; but shall minister with 
their brethren in the tent of meeting, to keep 
the charge, and shall do no service. Thus shalt 
thou do unto the Levites touching their charges. 



CHAPTER IX. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilder- 
ness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year 
after they were come out of the land of Egypt, 
saying, 

2 Let the children of Israel also keep the pass- 
over at his appointed season. 

3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, 
ye shall keep it in his appointed season : according 
to all the rites of it, and according to all the cere- 
monies thereof, shall ye keep it. 

4 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, 
that they should keep the passover. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilder- 
ness of Sinai, in the first month of the second 
year after they were come out of the land of 

2 Egypt, saying. Moreover let the children of Is- 
rael keep the passover in its appointed season. 

3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye 
shall keep it in its appointed season : according 
to all the statutes of it, and according to all the 

4 ordinances thereof, shall ye keep it. And Moses 
spake unto the children of Israel, that they 



23-26. The period of the Levites' service. 
The regulation of this section fixing the age of 
Levitieal service at from twenty-five to fifty 
years appears to be a correction or modification 
of 4 : 47, where the age of entering upon the 
service is fixed at thirty years. "As a cor- 
rection representing quite another period when 
reason had arisen for accepting the service of 
younger men, this is plain and simple enough. 
As a regulation coming from the same legislator 
who made the regulation of chapter four in the 
same breath, as it were, it would be unintel- 
ligible indeed" (Horton). The wholly un- 
usual and hardly correct form of expression in 
the Hebrew with which the section is intro- 
duced, this is it that belongeth unto the 
Levites (^er. 24)^ seems to indicate the work of a 
supplemental hand ; and yet, in any event, the 
modifier's inadvertence in not explaining his 
inconsistent insertion is strange. The attempt 
to explain the difference by supposing that the 
regulation of chapter four referred to the heavy 
work of transporting the tabernacle which 
needed men in their prime, while the service here 
provided for is the ordinary work of caring for 
it in its settled abode is wholly arbitrary. It is 
to be noted that, according to the chronicler 
(1 Chron. 23 : 24, seq.), one of the last acts of David 
was to change the age of entering on Levitieal 
service, apparently from thirty years (cf. i Chron. 
23 : 3), to twenty, on the ground that the heavy 
work of carrying the tabernacle no longer 
needed to be done. The lower limit seems to 
have been the recognized period of entering on 
service in the time of Hezekiah (2 Chron. 31 : 17) 
and after the exile (Ezra 3:8). 

This section is more specific than chapter four 



in defining what is involved in retiring the Le- 
vites at the age of fifty years. They shall return 
from the warfare of the service (ver. 25 )j i, e., the 
disciplinary severity which makes it like mili- 
tary duty, but shall assist their brethren in such 
duties as keeping guard or caring for property, 
involving no servile work. 



Chap. 9. The Passover at Sinai with 

ITS SUPPLEMENTAL ORDINANCE. THE SIG- 
NALS GIVEN BY THE CLOUD. The direction 
here given antedates the command for the 
numbering recorded in 1:1, seq, 2-8. This 
account of the observance of the Passover is 
evidently a piece of history introduced, like the 
narrative in Lev. 24 : 10-12, in order to exhibit 
the occasion and origin of an ordinance. The 
ordinance thus given its historical occasion is 
the second or "little" Passover prescribed for 
those who are hindered by uncleanness or ab- 
sence from observing the feast in the first month. 
As related in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, the 
first Passover was observed in Egypt on the 
night when Jehovah smote the firstborn ; and 
it contained one feature which did not belong to 
later observances of the feast, namely, the strik- 
ing of the blood on the door posts by which the 
house thus marked was rendered immune from 
the plague. This feature appears to have been 
replaced by the sprinkling of the blood on the 
altar. From the twenty-fifth verse of that chap- 
ter it might have been inferred that the I'egular 
observances of the feast were to begin when the 
children of Israel were settled in their Promised 
Land ; but this command in Numbers at the 
opening of the second year of the exodus ap- 
pears to have forestalled such a misunderstand- 



40 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. IX. 



5 And they kept the passover on the fourteenth 
day of the tirst mouth at even in the wilderness of 
Sinai : according to all that the Lord commanded 
Moses, so did the children of Israel. 

6 And there were certain men, who were defiled 
by the dead body of a man, that they could not 
keep the passover on that day : and they came 
before Moses and before Aaron on that day : 

7 And those men said unto him, We are defiled 
by the dead body of a man : wherefore are we kept 
back, that we may not offer an offering of the Lord 
in his appointed season among the children of 
Israel ? 

8 And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I 
will hear what the Lord will command concerning 
you. 

9 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

10 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If 
any man of you or of your posterity shall be un- 
clean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey 
afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the 
Lord. 

11 The fourteenth day of the second month at 
even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened 
bread and bitter herbs. 

12 They shall leave none of it unto the morning, 
nor break any bone of it : according to all the or- 
dinances of the passover they shall keep it. 

13 But the man that is clean, and is not in a jour- 
ney, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the 
same soul shall be cut off from among his people : 
because he brought not the offering of the Lord in 
his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. 

14 And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, 
and will keep the passover unto the Lord ; accord- 
ing to the ordinance of the passover, and accord- 
ing to the manner thereof, so shall he do : ye shall 
have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for 
him that was born in the land. 



5 should keep the passover. And they kept the 
passover in the tirst month, on the fourteenth day 
of the month, at even, in the wilderness of 
Sinai: according to all that the Lord com- 
manded Moses, so did the children of Israel. 

6 And there were certain men, who were unclean 
by the dead body of a man, so that they could 
not keep the passover on that day : and they 
came before Moses and before Aaron on that 

7 day : and those men said unto him. We are un- 
clean by the dead body of a man : wherefore are 
we kept back, that we may not offer the oblation 
of the Lord in its appointed season among the 

8 children of Israel? And Moses said unto them, 
Stay ye ; that I may hear what the Lord will 
command concerning you. 

9 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

10 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying. If any 
man of you or of your generations shall be un- 
clean by reason of a dead body, or be in a jour- 
ney afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto 

11 the Lord : in the second month on the fourteenth 
day at even they shall keep it ; they shall eat it 

12 with unleavened bread and bitter herbs : they 
shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor 
break a bone thereof : according to all the statute 

13 of the passover they shall keep it. But the man 
that is clean, and is not in a journey, and for- 
beareth to keep the passover, that soul shall be 
cut off from his people : because he offered not 
the oblation of the Lord in its appointed season, 

14 that man shall bear his sin. And if a stranger 
shall sojourn among you, and will keep the pass- 
over unto the Lord ; according to the statute of 
the passover, and according to the ordinance 
thereof, so shall he do : ye shall have one statute, 
both for the stranger, and for him that is born 
in the land. 



ing. Some of the details connected with this 
observance of the Passover in the desert, as, for 
instance, how the thousands of lambs necessary 
for the feast, or, for that matter, the many vic- 
tims requisite for maintaining the sacrifices 
could be provided by a people entirely depend- 
ent on manna for their daily food (Exod. le : 3 ; 
Numb. 11 : 6), or how the blood of so many vic- 
tims could be sprinkled by Aaron and his two 
sons "between the two evenings," raise ques- 
tions which must perhaps remain unsolved for 
lack of sufiicient information. 

The men who were unclean by the " soul " of 
a man have been conjectured to be Mishael and 
Elzaphan, the two who were employed to carry 
out the dead bodies of Nadab and Abihu after 
they were destroyed by fire from the Lord (see 
Lev. 10 : 4, 5). This act must have occurred within 
seven days of the time of this Passover, for the 
two young priests were stricken on the eighth 
day of their consecration, and that period did 
not begin until after the setting up of the taber- 
nacle on the first day of the second year of the 
exodus (Exod. 40 : 17). Whether, therefore, they 
were the ones who made their petition to Moses 
on this occasion or not, they at least must in all 
probability have been included among those 
incapacitated. And the freedom, as well as the 
religious and national zeal, displayed in their 



remonstrance seems to indicate people of more 
or less prominence, and men who could ap- 
proach Moses and Aaron with something of the 
boldness of relatives — men too, who could lay 
to their account the circumstance which thus 
deprived them of the privilege, Avherefore 
are we kept back — all of which corre- 
sponds to the character and condition of these 
two cousins of the high priest at this time. 
Their conception of the Passover as their obla- 
tion or " corban of Jehovah," which they 
counted it a privilege to offer, is an interesting 
note of the religious feeling at this nascent 
period of tabernacle or church life in Israel. 
The decision regarding their case is reserved for 
inquiry at the mouth of Jehovah, as was done 
on a similar occasion (Lev. 24 : 12). 

9-14. The result of Moses' inquiry is an or- 
dinance of Jehovah, not only for the present 
case, but for future generations. The person 
who is unclean by a " soul," or is on a distant 
journey at the time of the feast, shall keep the 
Passover one month later, according to the same 
method as is prescribed for the regular Passover. 
This Passover was known among the Jews as 
the " Little Passover," as it did not include the 
seven days of unleavened bread. The right to 
observe it did not extend to those who had failed 
to keep the regular feast through neglect. Such 



Ch. IX.] 



NUMBEKS 



41 



15 And on the day that the tabernacle was reared 
up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the 
tent of the testimony : and at even there was upon 
the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, 
until the morning. 

16 So it was alway : the cloud covered it by day, 
and the appearance of fire by night. 

17 And when the cloud was taken up from the 
tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel 
journeyed : and in the place where the cload abode, 
there the children of Israel pitched their tents. 

18 At the commandment of the Lord the children 
of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of 
the Lord they pitched : as long as the cloud abode 
upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. 

19 And when the cloud tarried long upon the 
tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel 
kept the charge of the Lord, and journeyed not. 

20 And so it was, when the cloud was a few days 
upon the tabernacle ; according to the command- 
ment of the Lord they abode in their tents, and 
according to the commandment of the Lord they 
journeyed. 

21 And so it was, when the cloud abode from even 
unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up 
in the morning, then they journeyed : whether it 
was by day or by night that the cloud was taken 
up, they journeyed. 

22 Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a 
year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, 
remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in 
their tents, and journeyed not : but when it was 
taken up, they journeyed. 

23 At the commandment of the Lord they rested 
in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord 
they journeyed : they kept the charge of the Lord, 
at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of 
Moses. 



15 And on the day that the tabernacle was reared 
up the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the 
tent of the testimony : and at even it was upon 
the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, 

16 until morning. So it was alway : the cloud cov- 
ered it, and the appearance of fire by night. 

17 And whenever the cloud was taken up from 
over the Tent, then after that the children of 
Israel journeyed : and in the place where the 
cloud abode, there the children of Israel en- 

18 camped. At the commandment of the Lord the 
children of Israel journeyed, and at the com- 
mandment of the Lord they encamped : as long 
as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they re- 

19 mained encamped. And when the cloud tarried 
upon the tabernacle many days, then the chil- 
dren of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and 

20 journeyed not. And sometimes the cloud was a 
few days upon the tabernacle ; then according 
to the commandment of the Lord they remained 
encamped, and according to the commandment 

21 of the Lord they journeyed. And sometimes the 
cloud was from evening until morning ; and 
when the cloud was taken up in the morning, 
they journeyed : or if it continued by day and by 
night, when the cloud was taken up, they jour- 

22 neyed. Whether it were two days, or a month, 
or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the taber- 
nacle, abiding thereon, the children of Israel 
remained encamped, and journeyed not : but 

23 when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the 
commandment of the Lord they encamped, and 
at the commandment of the Lord they jour- 
neyed : they kept the charge of the Lord, at the 
commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. 



remissness must be punished by the severest 
ecclesiastical penalty. Hezekiah seems to have 
availed himself of this privilege of keep- 
ing the Passover in the second month when he 
celebrated the feast after his reformation, as he 
was unable to complete the purification of the 
temple and the priesthood in time for its ob- 
servance in the first month (see 2 Chron. 29, 30). As 
for the foreigner dwelling among the children 
of Israel who keeps the Passover, he shall con- 
form to the same ordinance as the native born 
— it being understood, however, according to 
Exod. 12 : 48, 49, that he must first submit to 
circumcision. 

15-23. This section is closely connected with 
the account of the setting up of the tabernacle 
given in Exod. 40, and is indeed only an ex- 
panded and more circumstantial repetition of 
the subject-matter of ver. 34-38 of that chapter. 
The phenomenon of the pillar of cloud by day 
and of fire by night appeared with the first 
exodus from Egypt (Exod. 13 : 21, seq.) ; that cloud 
seems from the first to have so closely and intel- 
ligently adapted its movements to the exigen- 
cies of the host, not only in leading the way, but 
in warding off the enemy (iwd., u : 19, 20), that it 
seemed to the people clearly supernatural, and 
associated itself in their mind with the angel 
of God. Immediately on the completion of the 



tabernacle the cloud descended and filled it for 
a time with its radiance, making it impossible 
for Moses to enter (Exod. 40 : u, 35), as did a simi- 
lar cloud at the consecration of Solomon's temple 
(1 Kings 8 : 10, 11), The accouut here in Numbers 
goes on to say that not only did that cloud cover 
the tabernacle at the time of its first erection, 
but so it was all through the journeyings of the 
children of Israel. The tabernacle which it 
overshadowed is called the tent of the testi- 
mony (ver. 15), meaning the tent where the ark 
of the testimony was kept ; but this is not to be 
taken as meaning that it covered only the holy 
of holies, though no doubt it stood centrally 
over that sacred spot where Jehovah dwelt be- 
tween the cherubim. The behavior of the cloud 
became the signal for the people's breaking 
camp or remaining at rest ; when it was lifted 
they journeyed, and where it settled, there they 
encamped. Thus they formed the habit of 
journeying at the "mouth" or command of 
Jehovah, that command being given through 
the agency of the cloud and interpreted for the 
children of Israel by the hand (ver. 23) of Moses. 
This thought of a life making no plans of its 
own, having no prospects which can be antici- 
pated and provided for by human judgment, 
but regulating all its action by specific divine 
command from day to day, is one tliat has 



42 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. X. 



CHAPTER X. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Make thee two trumpets of silver ; of a whole 
piece Shalt thou make them : that thou mayest use 
them for the calling of the assembly, and for the 
journeying of the camps. 

3 And when they shall blow with them, all the 
assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the 
door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 

4 And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the 
princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, 
shall gather themselves unto thee. 

5 When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that 
lie on the east parts shall go forward. 

6 When ye blow an alarm the second time, then 
the camps that lie on the south side shall take 
their journey : they shall blow an alarm for their 
journeys. 

7 But when the congregation is to be gathered 
together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an 
alarm. 

8 And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow 
with the trumpets ; and they shall be to you for an 
ordinance for ever throughout your generations. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Make thee two trumpets of silver; of beaten 
work Shalt thou make them : and thou shalt use 
them for the calling of the congregation, and 

3 for the journeying of the camps. And when 
they shall blow with them, all the congregation 
shall gather themselves unto thee at the door of 

4 the tent of meeting. And if they blow but with 
one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands 
of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee. 

5 And when ye blow an alarm, the camps that lie 

6 on the east side shall take their journey. And 
when ye blow an alarm the second time, the 
camps that lie on the south side shall take their 
journey : they shall blow an alarm for their 

7 journeys. But when the assembly is to be 
gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall 

8 not sound an alarm. And the sons of Aaron, 
the priests, shall blow with the trumpets ; and 
they shall be to you for a statute for ever 



always been attractive to those of most fervent 
piety and nearest walk with God. It is espe- 
cially inspiring in relation to that aspect of our 
life which is like the journeying of the children 
of Israel, its temporariness and its uncertainty. 
Those are wisest who form the habit of holding 
their schemes subject to God's permission, and 
saying, "If the Lord will, we shall both live, 
and do this or that" (James 4 : 15). Yet such a 
piecemeal guidance by direct supernatural 
agency, attractive and infallible as it appears, 
would contribute only a one-sided development 
to the godward character. It might emphasize 
the existence and importance of the spiritual 
world (Deut. 8 : 3)j but it would not, as a perma- 
nent discipline, develop spiritual judgment or 
self-reliance. Those in perpetual tutelage re- 
main perpetually children. And it is to be 
noted that the daily sight of the supernatural 
did not, after all, prevent the children of Israel 
from missing their goal through unbelief. This 
visible parental conducting of the life has its 
lesson and stimulus for the Christian, but it pre- 
sents us only one side of the pattern to which 
our spiritual growth is to conform. This is 
what God does for his people when he is carry- 
ing them as the eagle carries her young on her 
wings (Exod. 19 : 4; Deut. 32 : ii). We are not to 
reckon ourselves necessarily remiss in faith or 
immediate amenability to the divine command 
because our own higher life is more predomi- 
nantly guided by our educated judgment and ini- 
tiative. This may be the sign of greater maturity 
rather than of greater remoteness from God. But 
meanwhile let us also be inspired by this child- 
like journeying of God's people to wait in un- 
questioning faith for the direct guidance of God 
in that aspect of our inner life to which it 



applies. However wise or far-sighted we may 
train ourselves to be in following that part of 
the will of God which reveals itself to sanctified 
good sense, there ever and anon arise crises 
which bring home to us our helplessness and 
short-sightedness as those of higher citizenship 
journeying through an unknown desert. It is 
then that our highest wisdom will be found in 
reverting, with childlike spirit, to the pattern 
of that guidance vouchsafed to the children of 
God so long ago, and watching intently for the 
signs of God's specific mandate given, if not in 
direct supernatural revelation, at least in the 
spiritual interpretation of his daily providences, 
while in self-efiacement we pray : 

Keep thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene, one step enough for me. 



Chap. 10. 1-10. The silvek teumpets 
AND THEIR USE. The kind of trumpet here 
mentioned was probably a straight and some- 
what slender tube expanding into a bell shape, 
as described by Josephus, Ant., III., 12 : 6. It 
thus differed from the "^SIK?, shophar, or cornet, 
which was crooked and often made of the horn 
of a ram or chamois. Representations of the 
straight trumpet are found on the Arch of Titus. 
Evidently these silver trumpets were intended 
as a sacred instrument, to be used only by the 
priests for the calling of the congregation and 
on occasions where the orders or reminders 
given were to be taken as divine ; as on the 
breaking up of the camp, or at the time of set 
feasts, or on occasions of religious rejoicing. 
They were thought of, not only as Jehovah's 
instrument for calling to the nation, but as 
their instrument for calling to him. When 
the natipu went to war against the oppressor io 



Ch. X.] 



NUMBERS 



43 



9 And if ye go to war in your land against the 
enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an 
alarm with the trumpets ; and ye shall be remem- 
bered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be 
saved from your enemies. 

10 Also in the day of your gladness, and in your 
solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, 
ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt 
offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace 
offerings ; that they may be to you for a memorial 
before your God : I am the Lord your God. 



9 throughout your generations. And when ye go 
to war in your land against the adversary that 
oppresseth you, then ye shall sound an alarm 
with the trumpets ; and ye shall be remembered 
before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved 
10 from your enemies. Also in the day of your 
gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the be- 
ginnings of your mouths, ye shall blow with the 
trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the 
sacrifices of your peace offerings ; and they shall 
be to you fur a memorial before your God : I am 
the Lord your God. 



their land, the blast of these trumpets would 
remind Jehovah of their distress and bring him 
to the rescue (ver. 9). Whether in war or on oc- 
casions of festivity, the trumpets were to serve 
the general purpose of a reminder, memorial 
(ver. 10), or symbol of the power to summon a 
gracious God. In that war of vengeance against 
the Midianites in which Balaam was slain, the 
zealous Phinehas carried the silver trumpets, 
along with other temple utensils, into the battle 
(31 : 6). Abijah the king of Judah, in his battle 
for the succession against Jeroboam the usurper, 
made the presence in the host of the legitimate 
priests with the trumpets of alarm a great 
ground of confidence as he made his battle- 
taunt (2 chron. 13 : 12) ; and indeed the timely 
sounding of these instruments served to remind 
the army of Judah, even though surprised and 
surrounded, of the help of God, and to turn 
panic into victory (ibid., ver. 14, 15). The same 
sort of straight trumpets to the number of one 



hundred and twenty was used in the temple band 
at the dedication of Solomon's temple (2 Chron. 
6 : 12) ; but whether these instruments were re- 
garded as of equal official sac redness with the 
original and divinely ordained two may be 
doubted. 

When both trumpets were blown with short 
blasts the congregation was to assemble at the 
door of the tent of meeting, while a similar sig- 
nal with one trumpet summoned only the princes 
or heads of the host. A long, full blast, or 
n^^ni^, t'riCah, was the signal for the camps on 
the east side, or the van, to take up the line of 
march. A second long blast brought the camps 
on the south side to their feet ; and the Septua- 
gint adds as the natural conclusion of the com- 
mand that the third blast was to set in motion 
the camps on the west, and the fourth the north- 
ward camps which brought up the rear. With 
this account of the trumpets and their uses ends 
the history of the sojourn at Sinai. 



PAET SECOND. 



THE JOUENEY FROM SINAI TO THE STEPPES OF MOAB. 
CHAPTERS 10 : 11 TO 22 : 1. 



This section of the book of Numbers gives 
us practically all the history we have of the 
wilderness wandering of nearly forty years. 
With the exception of a few months at the be- 
ginning and end of the period, the whole time 
is spent in the neighborhood of Kadesh. The 
children of Israel start on their journey from 
Sinai and come to the wilderness of Paran ; but 
on their way to that wilderness occurs the inci- 
dent of the phenomenal flight of quails with 
its sequel of a more or less protracted period of 
sickness in the host. At Kadesh in the wilder- 
ness of Paran, a place which communicates by 
the Amorite hill-road with the Negeh or south 
country of Canaan, spies are sent out to recon- 
noitre and bring back a description of the Prom- 
ised Land, but on account of their unfavorable 
report and the consequent murmuring of the 
congregation the people are doomed to wander 
in the wilderness until that whole generation 
has passed away. The principal incident of 
this wandering of which we have an account is 



the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, 
with the divine disclosure of the choice of 
Aaron which accompanied it. At the end of 
the long wandering the tribes are again gathered 
at Kadesh where Miriam dies, and Moses and 
Aaron, for their conduct at the Avaters of Meri- 
bah, are sentenced to failure in bringing the 
people into the Promised Land. The journey 
around the south end of the Dead Sea begun, 
Aaron dies and is buried at Mount Hor; the 
people being refused permission to pass through 
the territory of Edom, take the Elanitic gulf 
route, and at length, after various vicissitudes, 
arrive at the country of the Amorite Sihon, east 
of the Jordan, over whom they gain a decisive 
victory, and then exultantly take possession of 
the territory which he has recently wrested 
from Moab. As their men of war pass north- 
ward in the act of completing the conquest of 
the Amorites, their advance is disputed by Og 
the king of Bashan, whom they overcome in a 
similarly decisive manner. The section leaves 



44 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. X. 



11 And it came to pass on the twentieth day of 
the second month, in the second year, that the 
cloud was taken up from oflE the tabernacle of the 
testimony. 

12 And the children of Israel took their journeys 
out of the wilderness of Sinai ; and the cloud 
rested in the wilderness of Paran. 

13 And they first took their journey according to 
the commandment of the Lord by the hand of 
Moses. 

14 In the first pZace went the standard of the 
camp of the children of Judah according to their 
armies : and over his host was Nahshon the son of 
Amminadab. 

15 And over the host of the tribe of the children 
of Issachar was Nethaneel the son of Zuar. 

16 And over the host of the tribe of the children 
of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon. 

17 And the tabernacle was taken down ; and the 
sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward, 
bearing the tabernacle. 

18 And the standard of the camp of Reuben set 
forward according to their armies : and over his 
host was Elizur the son of Shedeur. 

19 And over the host of the tribe of the children 
of Simeon was Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 

20 And over the host of the tribe of the children 
of Gad was Eliasaph the son of Deuel. 

21 And the Kohathites set forward, bearing the 
sanctuary : and the other did set up the tabernacle 
against they came. 

22 And the standard of the camp of the children 
of Ephraim set forward according to their arm^ies : 
and over his host was Elishama the son of Am- 
mihud. 

23 And over the host of the tribe of the children 
of Manasseh was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 

24 And over the host of the tribe of the children 
of Benjamin was Abidan the son of Gideoni. 

25 And the standard of the camp of the children 
of Dan set forward, which was the rereward of all 
the camps throughout their hosts : and over his 
host was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. 

26 And over the host of the tribe of the children 
of Asher was Pagiel the son of Ocran. 

27 And over the host of the tribe of the children 
of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan. 

28 Thus were the journeyings of the children of 
Israel according to their armies, when they set 
forward. 



11 And it came to pass in the second year, in the 
second month, on the twentieth day of the 
month, that the cloud was taken up from over 

12 the tabernacle of the testimony. And the chil- 
dren of Israel set forward according to their 
journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai ; and the 

13 cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran. And 
they first took their journey according to the 
commandment of the Lord by; the hand of 

14 Moses. And in the first place the standard of 
the camp of the children of Judah set forward 
according to their hosts : and over his host was 

15 Nahshon the son of Amminadab. And over the 
host of the tribe of the children of Issachar was 

16 Nethanel the son of Zuar. And over the host of 
the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab 

17 the son of Helon. And the tabernacle was taken 
down ; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of 
Merari. who bare the tabernacle, set forward. 

18 And the standard of the camp of Reuben set 
forward according to their hosts: and over his 

19 host was Elizur the son of Shedeur. And over 
the host of the tribe of the children of Simeon 

20 was Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. And 
over the host of the tribe of the children of Gad 

21 was Eliasaph the son of Deuel. And the Ko- 
hathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary: 
and the other did set up the tabernacle against 

22 they came. And the standard of the camp of 
the children of Ephraim set forward according 
to their hosts : and over his host was Elishama 

23 the son of Ammihud. And over the host of the 
tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel 

24 the son of Pedahzur. And over the host of the 
tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan the 

25 son of Gideoni. And the standard of the camp of 
the children of Dan, which was the rearward of all 
the camps, set forward according to their hosts : 
and over his host was Ahiezer the son of Am- 

26 mishaddai. And over the host of the tribe of 
the children of Asher was Pagiel the son of 

27 Ochran. And over the host of the tribe of the 
children of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan. 

28 Thus were the journeyings of the children of 
Israel according to their hosts; and they set 
forward. 



them in the Steppes of Moab over against Jeri- 
cho, the object of apprehension and dislike to 
all their neighbors. Several chapters of Leviti- 
cal regulations are inserted from the priestly- 
sources without obvious connection with the 
history. 

11-36. Depaeture op the children of 
Israel from Mount Sinai. Hobab se- 
cured AS A guide. Functions of the 
ark in directing the movements of the 
host. The children of Israel had now been 
staying in the wilderness of Sinai nearly a 
full year (cf. Exod. i9 : i), during which time 
the tabernacle had been reared, the Levitical 
law given, and the numbering and organizing 
of the camp for marching and for tabernacle 
service effected. Verse twelve relates in a sum- 
mary way, and by anticipation, the protracted 
resting of the cloud in the wilderness of Paran 
where the people were sentenced to a forty 
years' wandering ; but between Sinai and that 
place there were at least two eneampings, at 



Kibroth-hattaawah and at Hazeroth (n : 34, 35; 
12 : 16). This wilderness of Paran was the half 
of the northern portion of the peninsula be- 
tween Egypt and Canaan, which lies east of the 
river of Egypt and the desert of Shur, and west 
of the Arabah or deep valley stretching south- 
ward from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah. 
It is known to the modern Arabs as Badiet et 
Tih, or Desert of the Wandering. It is parted 
from the mountainous region of Sinai by a 
great sand belt extending across the peninsula 
from gulf to gulf, in which belt were the two 
stations, Kibroth-hattaawah and Hazeroth. 

After a rather meaningless verse (i3) which 
furnishes an excuse for a description of the 
order of march, the priestly author repeats the 
names of the leaders of the tribes and the ar- 
rangement of march already given in chap. 
2, in something of the spirit of delight in the 
elaboration of detail which prompted the ex- 
traordinary repetitions of the seventh chapter. 
A variation is introduced in the placing of the 



Ch. X.] 



NUMBERS 



45 



29 And Moses said unto Hobab, the sou of Raguel 
the Midianite, Moses' father iu law, We are jour- 
neying unto the place of which the Lord said, 
I will give it you : come thou with us, and we will 
do thee good : for the Lord hath spoken good con- 
cerning Israel. 

30 And he said unto him, I will not go ; but I will 
depart to mine own land, and to my kindred. 

31 And he said, Leave us not, I pray thee ; foras- 
much as thou knowest how we are to encamp in 
the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of 
eyes. 

32 And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it 
shall be, that what goodness the Lord shall do unto 
us, the same will we do unto thee. 

33 And they departed from the mount of the 
Lord three days' journey : and the ark of the cove- 
nant of the Lord went before them in the three 
days' journey, to search out a resting place for 
them. 

34 And the cloud of the Lord was upon them by 
day, when they went out of the camp. 

35 And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, 
that Moses said, Rise up. Lord, and let thine ene- 
mies be scattered ; and let them that hate thee flee 
before thee. 

36 And when it rested, he said, Return, Lord, 
unto the many thousands of Israel. 



29 And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Reuel 
the Midianite, Moses' father in law, We are 
journeying unto the place of which the Lord 
said, I will give it you : come thou with us, and 
we will do thee good : for the Lord hath spoken 

30 good concerning Israel. And he said unto him, 
I will not go; but I will depart to mine own 

31 land, and to my kindred. And he said. Leave 
us not, I pray thee ; forasmuch as thou knowest 
how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and 

82 thou Shalt be to us instead of eyes. And it shall 
be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what 
good soever the Lord shall do unto us, the same 
will we do unto thee. 

33 And they set forward from the mount of the 
Lord three days' journey ; and the ark of the 
covenant of the Lord went before them three 
days' journey, to seek out a resting place for 

34 them. And the cloud of the Lord was over them 
by day, when they set forward from the camp. 

35 And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, 
that Moses said, Rise up, O Lord, and let thine 
enemies be scattered ; and let them that hate 

36 thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he 
said, Return, O Lord, unto the ten thousands of 
the thousands of Israel. 



tabernacle between the first and second groups 
of three tribes in the line of march instead of 
between the second and third, as in chap. 2, 
and in the bringing of the most holy furniture 
three tribes behind, or in the original place of 
the whole tabernacle, that it might find the 
tent pitched in readiness for it when it arrived 
at the place of encamping. 

29-32. It is not possible to determine with 
certainty whether Hobab or Reuel was the same 
as Jethro, and therefore whether Hobab was 
father-in-law or brother-in-law of Moses. The 
word tnn, chothen, here translated father-in- 
law, may possibly mean any relation on the 
wife's side, and in this passage the word may be 
in apposition either with Hobab or Reuel. If 
Reuel in Exod. 2 : 18 is the same as Jethro in 
3 : 1, it appears more probable that Hobab, 
Reuel's son, was Moses' brother-in-law, but on 
the other hand, the narrative in Exod. 2 : 16 
seems to preclude the idea that the priest of Mid- 
ian had sons. It is said in Exod. 18 : 27 that 
Jethro, after his visit to Moses here at Sinai, was 
allowed to depart to his home ; while from the 
present passage it seems to be implied that 
Hobab was prevailed upon to go with the chil- 
dren of Israel and act as their guide. We find 
from Judg. 1 : 16 and 4 : 11 that the descend- 
ants of Hobab, there called Kenites, were set- 
tled in Canaan, having thus obtained the ful- 
fillment of the promise in verse thirty-two, and 
their ancestor's services to the children of Is- 
rael while in the wilderness were long held in 
grateful remembrance (i sam. is : e). The narra- 
tive in this paragraph, as well as in the remain- 
der of the chapter, is conjectured by critics to be 



derived from a difierent original source from the 
book of Numbers, or indeed of Leviticus, thus 
far, being the first occurrence in these books of 
material derived from the so-called JE document. 

33-36. From this passage, which is believed 
to be from the JE source, the ark seems to be 
difierently related to the host and to the taber- 
nacle paraphernalia from what it is in the later 
and more elaborate temple organization of the 
priest document. Instead of being carefully 
wrapped and kept with the other material and 
furniture of the sanctuary, guarded front and 
rear by the two halves of the host, it appears to 
be the leader of the marching congregation, 
going far in advance in order to seek out a rest- 
ing place for the camp and carrying the over- 
shadowing cloud with it. This corresponds 
with the prominence given to it in the crossing 
of the Jordan (Josh. 3 : 3, 4)^ and to some extent 
in the siege of Jericho, where it is borne by 
priests (Josh. 6:4), though there it is accompanied 
by a vanguard and rearguard of armed men (ihid., 
9). It seems to have been regarded as a palla- 
dium in the early history of Canaan (i Sam. 4). 

The movement of the ark appears to be taken 
as the central and official act in the movement 
of the host, especially in the formula for break- 
ing camp and halting in ver. 35, 36. Here Moses 
addresses Jehovah as if he were symbolically 
embodied in the ark, the consciousness of his 
presence in the cloud, characteristic of the 
priestly narrative (see 9 : 15-23), being here entirely 
replaced by a sense of the divine identity with 
his written testimony. The sublime bit of poetry 
here given awakens a re-echoing note in the later 
songs of the people O'^. 68 c 1 -, 132 .• 8> 



46 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XL 



CHAPTEE XI 



1 AND XL-hen the people complained, it displeased 
the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and his anger 
was kindled : and the tire of the Lord burnt among 
them, and consumed them that vcereiu the uttermost 
parts of the camp. 

2 And the people cried unto Moses; and when 
Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. 

3 And he called the name of the place Tabt:i-ah : 
because the lire of the Lord burnt among them. 

4 And the mixt multitude that uas amoug them 
fell a lusting : and the childrtu of Israel also wept 
again, and said. Who shall give us iiesh to eat? 

5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in 
Egypt freely ; the cucumbers, and the melons, and 
the leeks, and the onions, and the gariick : 

6 But now our soul U dried away : there is noth- 
ing at all. beside this manna, before our eyes. 

7 And the manna was as coriander seed, and the 
colour thereof as the colour of bdellium. 

S And the people went about, and gathered it, 
and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and 
baked it in pans, and made cakes of it : and the 
taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. 

9 And when the dew fell upon the camp in the 
night, the manna fell upon it. 

10 Then Moses heard the people weep throughout 
their families, every man in the door of his tent : 
and the auger of the Lord was kindled greatly ; 
Moses also was displeased. 

11 And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast 
thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I 
not foimd favour"in thy sight, that thou layest the 
burden of all this peop"le upon me ? 

12 Have I conceived all this people? have I be- 
gotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, 
Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father bear- \ 
eth the suckling child, unto the land which thou ! 
swarest unto their fathers ? j 



1 AND the people were as murmur ers, speaking 
evil in the ears of the Lord : and when the Lord 
heard it, his anger was kindled ; and the tire of 
the Lord burnt amoug them, and devoured in 

2 the uttermost part of the camp. And the people 
cried imto Moses ; and Moses prayed unto the 

3 Lord, and the fire abated. And the name of that 
place was called Taberah : because the fire of 
the Lord burnt amoug them. 

4 And the mixed multitude that was among 
them fell a lusting : and the children of Israel 
also wept again, and said, Who shall give us 

5 flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we 
did eat in Egypt for nought ; the cucumbers, 
and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, 

6 and the gariick : but now ouj soul is dried 
away ; there is nothing at all: we have nought 

7 save' this manna to look to. And the manna 
was like coriander seed, and the appearance 

8 thereof as the appearance of bdellium. The 
people went about, and gathered it, and ground 
it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and seethed it 
in pots, and made cakes of it: and the taste of 

9 it was as the taste of fresh oil. And when the 
dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna 

10 fell upon it. And Moses heard the people weep- 
ing throughout their families, every man at the 
door of his tent : and the anger of the Lord was 
kindled greatly: and Moses was displeased. 

11 And Moses said" unto the Lord, Wherefore hast 
thou evil entieated thy servant? and wherefore 
have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou 
layest the burden of all this people upon me? 

12 Have I conceived all this p'Cople? have I brought 
them forth, that thou shouldest say unto me. 
Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing-father 
carrieth the sucking child, unto the land which 



Chap. 11. The MrEAirEiNG of the peo- 
ple AT Tabeeah and Kibroth-Hatta- 

AWAH. APPGEN'TMEXT OF SETEi^vTY ELDERS 
TO ASSIST AIOSES. QUAILS GIVEX TO SATISFY 

THE PEOPLE, 1-3. And when the people 
complained, etc, Earher, And the people 

icere as those that complain in the ears of Jeho- 
vah of something bad. "What was the subject of 
their complaint is not .stated. In Ps. 78 : 20, 
21 the occasion is poetically described as a ques- 
tioning whether God would provide bread and 
flesh for the people. Evidently a fire which 
broke out at the extremity of the camp was ac- 
counted for as a judgment from Jehovah, and it 
apparently subsided at the intercession of Moses. 
The place Taberah is not generally reckoned 
as one of the stations in the wilderness journey, as 
the itinerary in chap. 33 places Kibroth-Hatta- 
awah immediately after the wilderness of Sinai 
(ibid., Ter. 16) in the Order of stations. It is per- 
liaps only the part of the camp at Kibroth- 
Hattaawah where the fire broke ont. 

4-15. The milt multitude (^er. *). The 
Hebrew word is an onomatopoetic coinage, like 
" riff-raflV A mixed mnltirade is mentioned 
at Exod. 12 : 3S as accompanying the Israelites 
from Egypt. These people, being less uplifted 
and sustained by the religions hopes of the 



nation, would be the first to be discontented. 
Their dissatisfaction seems to have infected the 
Israelites themselves, so that they returned and 
icept, i. e., perhaps repeated the murmnrings 
mentioned in Exod. 16 : 2, 3. A sort of nervous 
contagion, such as sometimes mysteriously 
sweeps through crowds, seems to have produced 
a general hysteria, so that the noise of weeping 
could be heard from every tent like a universal 
cry (ver, 10). It was not the fear of starvation 
this time, as at Exod. 16, leading them to re- 
member the substantial food of Egypt, but a 
distaste for the monotony of their single divinely 
sent staple, making them long inordinately for 
flesh and fish and fresh vegetables. On another 
occasion they expressed it, " Our soul loatheth 
this light bread" (21 : 5). The Xile in Egypt 
is said to aboimd in fish, and the cucumbers 
and melons in that coimtry are partictilarly 
choice, and the onions mild and appetizing. 
The writer takes occasion to describe the manna 
and its method of preparation somewhat more 
in detail than in Exod, 16 : 31. In both places it 
is described as like coriander seed ; in Exodus it 
is said to have been white in color, and here to 
have been in appearance like bdellium, a sub- 
stance mentioned in Gen, 2 : 12, but not well 
I knoTtn. The manna appears to have been a dry 



Ch. XL] 



NUMBEKS 



47 



13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all 
this people ? for they weep unto me, saying, Give 
us flesh, that we may eat. 

14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, be- 
cause it is too heavy for me. 

15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray 
thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy 
sight ; and let me not see my wretchedness. 

16 And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me 
seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou 
knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers 
over them ; and bring them unto the tabernacle of 
the congregation, that they may stand there with 
thee. 

17 And I will come down and talk with thee 
there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon 
thee, and will put it upon them ; and they shall 
bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou 
bear it not thyself alone. 

18 And say thou unto the people. Sanctify your- 
selves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesli : 
for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, 
Who shall give us iiesh to eat? for it was well with 
us in Egypt : tlierefore the Lord will give you flesh, 
and ye shall eat. 

19 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor 
five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days ; 

20 But even a whole month, until it come out at 
your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: be- 
cause that ye liave despised the Lord which is 
among you, and have wept before him, saying. 
Why came we forth out of Egypt? 

21 And Moses said, The people, among whom I 
am, are six hundred thousand footmen ; and thou 
hast said, 1 will give them flesh, that they may eat 
a whole month. 

22 Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for 
them, to suflice them? or shall all the fish of the 
sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them ? 



13 thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should 
I have flesh to give unto all this people ? for 
they weep unto me, saying. Give us flesh, that 

14 we may eat. I am not able to bear all this peo- 

15 pie alone, because it is too heavy for me. And 
if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, 
out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight ; 
and let me not see my wretchedness. 

16 And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto 
me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom 
thou knowest to be the elders of the people, 
and otticers over them ; and bring them unto 
the tent of meeting, that they may stand there 

17 with thee. And I will come down and talk with 
thee there : and I will take of the spirit which 
is upon thee, and will put it upon them ; and 
they shall bear the burden of the people with 

18 thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. And 
say thou uuto the people, Sanctify yourselves 
against to-morrow, and ye shall eat flesh : for ye 
have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying. Who 
shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with 
us in Egypt: therefore the Lord will give you 

19 flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one 
day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten 

20 days, nor twenty days ; but a whole month, 
until it come out at your nostrils, and it be 
loathsome unto you : because that ye have re- 
jected the Lord which is among you, and have 
wept before him, saying, Why came we forth 

21 out of Egypt? And Moses said. The people, 
among whom I am, are six hundred thousand 
footmen ; and thou hast said, I will give them 

22 flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall 
flocks and herds be slain for them, to sufiice 
them ? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered 
together for them, to suffice them ? 



enough substance so that it could be reduced to 
meal and baked, tasting, it is said, like a " moist 
cake of oil." The description is probably intro- 
duced to show the unreasonableness of complaint, 
at least on the ground of its unpleasantness. 

The patience of Moses was sorely tried, and 
he seems to have felt a sort of disgust for his 
task, as if it were that of taking care of a lot of 
babies. His complaint takes the form of re- 
monstrance with Jehovah for thus subjecting 
him to a kind and degree of penance to which 
death were preferable. It is especially in view 
of the apparently impossible demand that he 
should provide the multitude with flesh that 
he is thrown into perplexity ; and the burden 
of the whole people, which to his overtaxed 
mind seems to rest upon him alone, impresses 
him as too heavy for him to bear. 

16-22. The appointment of elders to assist 
Moses seems to have been a fascinating subject 
to the Hebrew narrators, as it recurs in several 
places and in connection Avith various exigen- 
cies. Twice the elders are spoken of as appointed 
for secular judges, and twice they are summoned 
to be brought into touch with the greater super- 
natural manifestations of Jehovah's presence. 
In Exod. 18 the appointment of elders to be 
subordinate rulers and judges is represented as 
being suggested by Jethro on the occasion of his 



visit to Moses to bring him his wife and chil- 
dren, though in Deuteronomy (i : 9-i8) Moses 
speaks as if he made the request for such a col- 
lege of assistants of his own accord. On the one 
other occasion besides this on which the num- 
ber seventy is specified (Exod. 24) the elders ac- 
companied Moses into Mount Sinai and saAV the 
glory of Jehovah, in some such way as the 
seventy are impressed to ecstasy with his glory 
here. Evidently the help which Moses needed, 
and which was held out to him on this occasion, 
is not simply a relieving him of detail work, 
but such a participation in and sympathy with 
his inner life as should lighten that awful sense 
of loneliness which was the principal ground of 
his complaint. Something of his spirit was to 
be put upon them (ver. 17), so that they could 
mentally bear his burden with him. Sometimes 
mental or spiritual sympathy is worth far more 
than routine help, even though it perform no 
act of assistance. The precise official functions 
of these elders are obscure ; but it is quite evi- 
dent that they did not form a permanent body 
which was continued through the history of the 
nation and revived in the Sanhedrin after the 
exile, as the Talmudists and the rabbins imagine. 
As for tlie people, ^Moses is directed to issue 
orders that they sanctify or prepare themselves 
by ceremonial purifications for the morrow, 



48 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XI. 



23 And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's 
hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether 
my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. 

24 And Moses went out, and told the people the 
words of the Lord, and gathered the seventy men 
of the elders of the people, and set them round 
about the tabernacle. 

26 And the Lord came down in a cloud, and 
spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was 
upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders : and 
it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon 
them, they prophesied, and did not cease. 

26 But there remained two of the men in the 



23 And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's 
baud waxed short? now shalt thou see whether 
my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. 

24 And Moses went out, and told the people the 
words of the Lord : and he gathered seventy 
men of the elders of the people, and set them 

25 round about the Tent. And the Lord came 
down in the cloud, and spake unto him, and 
took of the spirit that was upon him, and put it 
upon the seventy elders : and it came to pass, 
that, when the spirit rested upon them, they 

26 prophesied, but they did so no more. But there 



with the half-promise, half-threat, that they 
shall eat flesh for a whole month of days, until 
it comes out of their nostrils and becomes loath- 
some to them. How this prediction shall be 
fulfilled is as mysterious to Moses as to the rest 
of the people, so that in a bewildered way he 
casts about in his mind for some conceivable 
means by which it could possibly be accom- 
plished (ver. 21,22). 

23-35. After being reminded of the power 
of Jehovah and enjoined to hold himself in read- 
iness for a manifestation of it, Moses goes out of 
the tent and reports Jehovah's words to the 
people. Then according to directions he as- 
sembles seventy of the elders of the people in 
the neighborhood of the sanctuary. The glory- 
cloud begins to descend. Nearer and nearer it 
comes, overspreading their sky, enveloping 
them with an impressive obscuration, filling 
them with awe as it isolates them from all their 
visible surroundings. Of another company in 
New Testament times, similarly overshadowed 
with a cloud of glory, it was written, ' ' They 
feared as they entered into the cloud " (Luke 9 : 
3*). Presently the cloud, as often before, be- 
came communicative to Moses ; and now all at 
once the seventy, through some electrical thrill 
of sympathy, were penetrated by a marvelous 
sense of the divine greatness, and in the intens- 
est excitement they began to speak what they 
felt. Moses' spirit was communicated to them, 
not by the ordinary means of inculcation, that 
is, articulate speech and believing assent, but 
by a transfer of his mental standpoint to their 
consciousness, so that they perceived spiritual 
truth directly, as he did. The moment they 
were raised to Moses' point of view their unac- 
customed souls were excited to the point of 
ecstasy. The account says (ver. 25) that they 
prophesied, but "did not add," -i. e., did not 
continue to speak ecstatically (see r. v.). This 
perhaps does not imply that they soon lost their 
new perception of truth, but rather that after 
becoming more accustomed to the new and 
wonderful outlook they took the experience 
more sanely, having developed into elevated 



and spiritually minded men who could be a 
genuine help and reliance for Moses in dealing 
with the discontented people. 

In this early manifestation of a phenomenon 
destined to become characteristic of Hebrew re- 
ligion, we have an indication of the essential na- 
ture of all prophecy. The prophet is raised above 
the realm of faith into the realm of sight ; but the 
sight of God, be it observed, is not a sight which 
tends to picturableness in terms of visible form, 
but a sight which tends to formulableness in 
terms of speech. The self-revealed God is a 
Word. God's formula, sjm'bol, or in Bible 
language his name, is all the sight of God that 
is revealable to human perception (cf. Exod. 33 : 
18, 19 ; 34 : 5, seq.). Hcucc direct perception of God 
issues in speech, unstudied, compelled, impul- 
sive, or ecstatic, according to the degree of 
nervous excitement which the perception in- 
duces. A historical note in regard to the 
prophet as a character (see i Sam. 9 ; 9) chronicles 
the fact that he was at first described by his 
mental status and power as a seer, but after- 
ward by his characteristic habit of impulsive 
speaking as a J^'^J, nabi, or prophet. It 
hardly needs to be said that prophesying is not 
necessarily, or even predominantly, a foretell- 
ing of future events, but simply a speaking 
forth of the things of God from direct percep- 
tion. If it seem a matter of regret that so small 
a portion of the truth perceived by the Scrip- 
ture characters who were on various occasions 
prophetically endowed is preserved for the use 
of the world, it is worthy of being pointed out 
that probably only the lowest stratum of such 
truth is capable of being brought within the 
realm of ordinary inculcation so as to be laid 
hold of by assent or faith. Only that part 
of prophetic truth becomes useful for common 
guidance which can commend itself to the or- 
dinary sense of value by attaching itself to some 
practical issue of life. The heavenly words 
which Paul heard it was not possible or lawful 

to utter (2 Cor. 12 : 4). 

Two of the men (ver. 26) included in the writ- 
ten list — which must have comprised seventy- 



Cm. XL] 



NUMBERS 



49 



camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the 
name of the other Medad : and the spirit rested 
upon them ; and they were of them that were 
written, but went not out unto the tabernacle : and 
they prophesied in the camp. 

27 And there ran a young man, and told Moses, 
and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the 
camp. 

28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of 
Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, 
My lord Moses, forbid them. 

29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for 
my sake? would God that all the Lord's people 
were prophets, and that the Lord would put his 
spirit upon them ! 

30 And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the 
elders of Israel. 

31 And there went forth a wind from the Lord, 
and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall 
by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this 
side, and as it were a day's journey on the other 
side, round about the camp, and as it were two 
cubits high upon the face of the earth. 

32 And the people stood up all that day, and all 
that night, and all the next day, and they gathered 
the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten 
homers : and they spread them all abroad for them- 
selves round about the camp. 

33 And while the flesh was yet between their 
teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord 



remained two men in the camp, the name of the 
one was Eldad, and the name of the other 
Medad : and the spirit rested upon them ; and 
they were of them that were written, but had 
not gone out unto the Tent : and they prophesied 

27 in the camp. And there ran a young man, and 
told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do 

28 prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of 
Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen 
men, answered and said. My lord Moses, forbid 

29 them. And Moses said unto him. Art thou 
jealous for my sake ? would God that all the 
Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord 

30 would put his spirit upon them ! And Moses 
gat him into the camp, he and the elders of 

31 Israel. And there went forth a wind from the 
Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let 
them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on 
this side, and a day's journey on the other side, 
round about the camp, and about two cubits 

32 above the face of the earth. And the people 
rose up all that day, and all the night, and all 
the next day, and gathered the quails : he that 
gathered least gathered ten homers : and they 
spread them all abroad for themselves round 

33 about the camp. While the flesh was yet be- 
tween their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger 



two, perhaps six to a tribe — had for some reason 
not gone to the tent of meeting with the other 
seventy ; and yet these men were infected with 
the same spirit and began to attract attention by 
prophesying in the camp. This breaking out 
of the higher manifestations of religion amid 
commonplace and secular surroundings was in- 
pressively noticeable, and with the idea that 
something was wrong a young man without 
loss of time ran to inform Moses. Joshua, the 
son of Nun, Moses' attendant from his youth 

(rer. 28, see R. V. Margin) ^ who WaS with MoSCS at 

the tabernacle and had seen the whole specta- 
cle of the seventy, which to the eye of his de- 
lighted loyalty so enhanced the glory of his 
master, could not bear an outbreak so irregular 
and so independent of constituted authority as 
this of Eldad and Medad. Joshua's instincts 
were military (cf. Exod. 32 : 17 ), and along with 
the tactician's sense of Moses' prerogative, there 
was also in his mental make-up a certain de- 
ficiency which prevented him from realizing 
the superiority of the free spirit to tactical com- 
mands. He would have had his master suppress 
the irregular manifestation, even of the divine 
Spirit. To his mind everything from God must 
come through Moses. It is the old conflict, al- 
ways cropping out because there are always op- 
posite sorts of mind, between the sense for order 
and the sense for freedom. Moses, who was him- 
self sufficiently insistent on orderly methods 
(cf. com. on Lev. 10 : 16-20), was nevertheless so fully 
inspired, and withal so meek, as to rejoice in 
whatever indicated God's presence with his 
people, even though it was apparently inde- 



pendent of his initiative. He could wish that 
the spiritual perception and free utterance of 
Eldad and Medad were universal. As Dill- 
mann remarks: "It is the highest goal of the 
church of which Moses has here a glimpse (es- 
sentially according to John 3), and to attain 
this goal is the true man's highest wish, not the 
defending of his personal honor." 

The meeting at the tabernacle being broken 
up, and Moses having returned to the camp, 
there followed the fulfillment of Jehovah's 
second promise. A strong wind, called a wind 
from Jehovah, and in Ps. 78 : 26 designated as a 
southeast wind, brought a flock of quails from 
the direction of the Elanitic gulf and spread 
them over the camp, flying about two cubits 
above the earth and covering the space of a 
day's journey in each direction. This seems to 
be the meaning of ver. 31, rather than that 
they fell in solid heaps two cubits high, as the 
Authorized version seems to imply. The quail 
is said to hang upon the wind in its flying, and 
when wearied it flies low, so that these birds 
could easily be grasped. Many of them no 
doubt also fell to the ground from exhaustion. 
The people fell to with the utmost eagerness, 
and gathered and dressed quails all that day 
and night and the next day, so that ten chomers, 
or fifty to sixty bushels, Avas accounted a small 
portion. No doubt they ate greedily during 
this time, and yet unable to make use of them 
all while they were fresh the people spread them 
out to dry in the sun all about the camp. Their 
unrestrained greediness, after so long a period 
of comparative abstinence, brought on its cou- 



D 



50 



KUMBEHS 



[Ch. xn. 



was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote 
the people with a very great plague. 

34 And he called the name of that place Kib- 
roth-hattaavah : because there they buried tlie 
people that lusted. 

35 And the people journeyed from Kibroth-hatta- 
avah unto Hazeroth ; and abode at Hazeroth. 



of the Lord was kindled against the people, and 
the Lord smote the people with a very great 

34 plague. And the name of that place was called 
Kibroth-hattaavah : because there they buried 

35 the people that lusted . From Kibroth-hattaavah 
the people journeyed unto Hazeroth ; aud they 
abode at Hazeroth. 



CHAPTER XII. 



1 AND Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses 
because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had 
married : for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 

2 And they said, hath the Lord indeed spoken 
only by Moses? liath he not spoken also by us? 
And the Lord heard it. 

3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all 
the men which were upon tiie face of the earth.) 



AND Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses 
because of the Cushite woman whom he had 
married : for he had married a Cushite woman. 
And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken 
only with Moses? hath he not spoken also with 
us? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Mo- 
ses was very meek, above all the men which 



sequences of disgust and deathly sickness, so 
that in many instances people died with their 
mouths full (ver. 33). The great pestilence 
which followed was attributed to the anger of 
Jehovah ; and so many were the graves of those 
that died that the place was called Kibroth- 
Hattaawah, or Graves of Greediness. 

The next stopping-place after Kibroth-Hat- 
taawah, where they must have stayed at least a 
month, was a place called Hazeroth, a name 
meaning, "fenced enclosures." Attempts to 
identify the place with Haderah, which is 
apparently too far east, or with El Ain, are 
conjectures carrying little or no certainty, as 
the name Hazeroth is one that could be applied 
to many places. 



Chap. 12. Eebellion of Miriam and 
Aaron against Moses, and Miriam's lep- 
rosy. 1-9. Miriam is called in Exod. 15 : 20 
" the prophetess, the sister of Aaron," and she 
is mentioned in Micah 6 : 4 as one of the three 
leaders of Israel from Egypt. She was no doubt 
the sister who watched the infant Moses when 
he was placed in the flags by the river, and pro- 
cured the mother as his nurse when he was dis- 
covered (Exod. 2 : 7, 8). The prominence given to 
Miriam in this chapter, and the emphasis put 
upon prophecy as a source of honor, have led 
modern critics quite unanimously to assign this 
chapter to the source called E. The Cushite or 
Ethiopian woman cannot have been the same 
as the Midianite Zipporah (see Exod. 2 : 21), styled 
an Ethiopian by Miriam in contempt and be- 
cause of her dark skin, for the author takes 
pains to add the explanation — omitted, how- 
ever, in the Vulgate—" for he had married a 
Cushite woman." It is supposed that Zipporah 
had died and Moses had married a new wife, 
though there is no other mention of this fact ; 
and the supposition requires that all this bereave- 
ment and readjustment of Moses' domestic re- 
lations took place with a considerable degree of 



expedition, for it was but a short while since 
Zipporah was alive and well (Exod. is : 2). Jose- 
phus and the Targum of Jonathan preserve the 
tradition that Moses, while still a prince of 
Egypt and previous to his flight to Midian, 
married the Ethiopian princess of Meroe (Jos., 
Ant., II., 10 : 2)^ but it is difiicult to see, in the ab- 
sence of further detail, how that fact should start 
up an outbreak at this late day. The whole 
biblical account of the early domestic relations 
of Moses is so full of omissions and apparent 
redactional glosses as to render the precise facts 
very obscure. What relation Moses' marriage 
had to his preeminence as the medium for the 
divine revelations is not clear. All we can see 
is that Miriam's irritation and perhaps out- 
raged national pride at Moses' domestic arrange- 
ments issued in an attack on his assumed ex- 
clusiveness in exercising the prophetic function. 
That attack appears to have been nothing 
else but an expression of pure envy. Miriam 
was looking only at the honor of being a recog- 
nized prophet — an honor which in Moses' case 
had received great augmentation by recent 
events. This honor was the last thing in Moses' 
thoughts. So noticeably indeed was this the 
case that the author says Moses was the meekest 
of men upon the face of the earth. Far from 
his mind was it to claim that the Lord had 
spoken only by him. Even Eldad's and 
Medad's prophesying in the camp, so irregular 
as to seem to many an irreverent procedure, 
Avas welcomed by Moses with the wish that such 
things might be general. All that Miriam 
needed in order to get everything she was claim- 
ing was to go to work and prophesy ; Moses 
would have been as glad to see the gift in her as 
in any of the rest of the Lord's people. It looks 
as if Miriam's prophetic gift which she had once 
exercised was no longer active, but had sunk 
into a memory and a claim. She was taking 
the course which has again and again been 
taken in the church in all ages: instead of 



Ch. XII.] 



NUMBERS 



51 



4 And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and 
unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three 
unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they 
three came out. 

5 And the Lord came down in the pillar of the 
cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and 
called Aaron and Miriam : and they both came 
forth. 

6 And he said. Hear now my words : If there be 
a prophet among you, 1 the Lord will make myself 
known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto 
him in a dream. 

7 My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in 
all mine house. 

8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even 
apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the 
similitude of the Lord shall he behold : wherefore 
then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant 
Moses ? 

9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against 
them ; and he departed. 

10 And the cloud departed from off the taber- 
nacle ; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white 
as snow : and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, be- 
hold, she was leprous. 

11 And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I 
beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we 
have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. 

12 Let her not be as one dead, of whom the hesh 
is half consumed when he cometh out of his moth- 
er's womb. 

13 And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying. Heal 
her now, O God, I beseech thee. 

14 And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father 
had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed 
seven days ? let her be shut out from the camp seven 
days, and after that let her be received in again. 



4 were upon the face of the earth. And the Lord 
spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, 
and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the 
tent of meeting. And they three came out. 

5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, 
and stood at the door of the Tent, and called 
Aaron and Miriam : and they both came forth. 

6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a 
prophet among you, I the Lord will make my- 
self known unto him in a vision, 1 will speak 

7 with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not 

8 so ; he is faithful in all mine house : with him 
will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, 
and not in dark speeches ; and the form of the 
Lord shall he behold : wherefore then were ye 
not afraid to speak against my servant, against 

9 Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled 

10 against them ; and he departed. And the cloud 
removed from over the Teat ; and, behold, Mir- 
iam was leprous, as white as snow : and Aaron 
looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was lep- 

11 rous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Oh my lord, 
lay not, I pray thee, sin upon us, for that we 
have done foolishly, and for that we liave 

12 sinned. Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of 
whom the flesh is half consumed when he com- 

13 eth out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried 
unto the Lord, saying. Heal her, O God, I be- 

14 seech thee. And the Lord said unto Moses, If 
her father had but spit in her face, should she 
not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut up 
without the camp seven days, and after that she 



gaining preeminence by the way which is always 
open to every one — the way of preeminent use- 
fulness — she was holding back and accusing the 
one who had found that way and its reward of 
arrogating an exclusive dignity to himself. As 
for Aaron, he appears to have been a weak echo 
of his stronger-minded sister, and not much else. 
A sudden summons from Jehovah brought 
the three to the tent of meeting. The theophauic 
cloud took its stand at the door of the tent ; and 
there Aaron and Miriam, like a pair of culprits 
at the bar, heard the divine explanation of the 
diflference between God's revelation to Moses 
and that to other prophets. The explana- 
tion appears to amount to this: the kind of 
allocution of which Moses was the organ con- 
sisted of truth communicable in plain language 
and to the intellect at its ordinary level ; while 
other prophets became recipients only of com- 
munications adapted to dream-states or to sym- 
bolic representation in visions, impressions 
which make a more ecstatic seizure on the feel- 
ings. Moses' kind of truth was less showy be- 
cause less productive of rapture ; but it was 
really far more important because it was more 
weighty with national utilities and human moral 
issues. Moses is distinguished as being spoken 
to for business; he is the man of affairs and of 
responsibility, this is perhaps what is meant 
by, who is faithful in all mine house 



(ver. 7). One somewhat obscure addition is made 
to this description, the form of Jehovah shall he 
behold (ver. 8) — a reference perhaps to the ex- 
perience related in Exod. 33 : 17-23. This 
whole passage appears intended to make the 
highest claim as revelation for that form of in- 
spiration which appears least unearthly, and 
issues in prosaic moral law like the Pentateuch. 
It is largely on account of this passage perhaps 
that the Pentateuch is regarded by Jews and 
Samaritans as the most highly inspired part of 
the Old Testament (cf. com. on 7 : 89). 

10-16. Leaving behind an impression of the 
divine anger the cloud removes from over the 
tent, and the terror-stricken Aaron turns and 
beholds his sister a ghastly, corpse-like leper. 
It is Moses whom he realizes they have wronged ; 
it is Moses in whom the divine majesty seems 
almost to embody itself; and to Moses Aaron 
abjectly prays that he will not count their guilt 
against them in that ihej ha,ye played the fool 
(ver. 11) and sinned. He entreats that his sister, 
whom under the divine stroke he involuntarily 
contemplates with horror, may not be like a 
corpse or like a half-decayed, untimely stillbirth 
(ver. 12). Moses, with his characteristic unself- 
ishness, entreats the Lord that she may be 
healed, and it is implied that this prayer is 
answered at once. But it is no more than right 
that, like every restored leper (Lev. i* : 8), she 



52 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XIII. 



15 And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven 
days : aud the people journeyed not till Miriam was 
brought in again. 

16 And afterward the people removed from Ha- 

zeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran. 



15 shall be brought in again. And Miriam was 
shut up without the camp seven days : and the 
people journeyed not till Miriam was brought 

16 in again. And afterward the people journeved 
from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of 
Paran. 



shall undergo some penance of separation ; since 
even if she had experienced no more than a 
public expression of parental displeasui'e (ver. u)^ 
she would have been humiliated for seven days. 
So Miriam was put outside of the camp, but the 
congregation remained encamped in the same 
spot until the seven days were finished. After- 
ward the people accomplished the final stage of 
the journey which was summarily described at 
the first mention of their breaking camp after 
the sojourn at Sinai (lo : 12). The station at 
which they are found at the opening of the next 
chapter is Kadesh (is : 26), which is mentioned 
as if it were idemical with, or in the wilderness 
of Paran. 

It is noteworthy that, just as the early days of 
the Christian church were signalized by gifts of 
the Spirit manifesting themselves in prophecy 
and speaking with tongues, so the beginning of 
the church life in the wilderness is accompanied 
■with an outbreak of prophecy. But it is in 
connection with the faith side of their religion 
rather than the mere institutional or law side 
that this upspringing of spontaneous life occurs. 
When the people once get fairly started for 
their land, and the promises and prospects of 
their divinely given home begin to be accentu- 
ated in their lives, then it is that they begin to 
see divine things for themselves and to speak 
their swelling joys. Prophecy always has some- 
thing forward-looking about it — it hails the 
coming day. The faith in God's promises is 
the most natural soil on which it can spring up : 
"Eeceived ye the Spirit by the works of the 
law," says Paul, " or by the hearing of faith ? " 
(Gal. 3:2.) Noteworthy too, is the fact that this 
sweetest blossom of religion differentiates itself 
in its origin from, or quickly finds its contrast 
with unspirituality and pride. It is the in- 
tense laying hold of the promise in antagonism 
to the gross unbelief which would fain go back 
to Egypt for its sensual luxtmes that predisposes 
the seventy for the divine gift at the tabernacle ; 
it is the contrast and the intolerance of ofl&- 
cialism which Eldad and !Medad very promptly 
encounter in Joshua, just as spontaneous relig- 
ion encounters it in every period of the chtirch. 
Miriam misapprehends the value of prophecy 
and externalizes and cheapens the conception 
of it by dragging it, as it were, into politics. 
So the first appearance of the gift in the church 



in the wilderness not only associates itself with 
the familiar psychological conditions which al- 
ways accompany higher spiritual insight and 
rapture, but it very promptly encounters the 
same foes of the higher spiritual liberty, offi- 
cialism, and worldly ambition, which as con- 
stant traits of human nature ever lie in wait to 
curb or cheapen the manifestations of the Spirit. 



Chap. 13. The dispatch of the spies, 
AND theie eepoet. This chapter and the fol- 
lowing are to be taken together as making up one 
narrative, the narrative of the spies. It is quite 
unmistakably a double account, being composed 
of two elements woven together, each of which, 
read continuously, makes up a nearly complete 
narrative and Avhich present the characteristics 
respectively of P and JE. The composite char- 
acter of the chapters appears especially in the fact 
that one narrative frequently parallels the other 
{e. g., 13 : 22 parallels ver. 21 ; ver. 32 parallels 
ver. 27-31, and 14 : 26-35 parallels ver. 11-25), 
and also in the fact that the two accounts differ in 
their representations of the facts. Thus, accord- 
ing to JE the spies go only as far as the neigh- 
borhood of Hebron (is : 22-24) ^ while according 
to P they go through the whole country to the 
far north (ver. 21). In the one account they rep- 
resent the country on their return as fertile but 
too strongly defended for them to conquer (i3 = 
2T-31) ; in the other they call it a coimtry that 
"eateth up its inhabitants," that is, a country 
too poor to be worth taking (is : 32). In JE Caleb 
alone stills the people and is alone exempted 
from the sentence of exclusion from Palestine 
(13 : so ; u : 24) ; in P Joshua is included with 
Caleb in the act of pacifying the people and in 
the exemption from the divine sentence. Per- 
haps too, we may trace to the double character 
of the account the fact that in some parts of the 
narrative the spies are represented as starting 
out from and returning to the wilderness of 
Paran (is : 3, 26), while in others the place is 
named as Kadesh (is : 26) . In other parts of the 
Pentateuch where this story of the spies is re- 
capitulated (e. g., Num. 32 : 8-13 : Deut. 1 : 22-45), the 

narrative of JE seems to be the one of the two 
in this double chapter which is more closely 
followed in respect to the shortness of the jour- 
ney — i. e., only to Eshcol — and in respect to the 
characteristic name Kadesh-barnea, as distin- 



Ch. XIII. 



NUMBERS 



53 



CHAPTER XIII. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Send thou raeu, that they may search the land 
of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Is- 
rael : of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a 
man, every one a ruler among them. 

3 And Moses by the commandment of the Lord 
sent thcDJ from the wilderness of Paran : all those 
men were heads of the children of Israel. 

4 And these were their names: of the tribe of 
Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. 

5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of 
Hori. 

6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of 
Jephunneh. 

7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. 

8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun. 

9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Ps^lti the son of 
Raphu. 

10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of 
Sodi. 

11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of 
Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. 

12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of 
Gemalli. 

13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of 
Michael. 

14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of 
Vophsi. 

15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 

16 These are tiie names of the men which Moses 
sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea 
the son of Nun Jehoshua. 

17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of 
Canaan, and said unto them. Get you up this way 
southward, and go up into the mountain : 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Send thou men, that they may spy out the land 
of Canaan, which I give unto the children of 
Israel : of every tribe of their fathers shall ye 
send a man, every one a prince among them. 

3 And Moses sent them from the wilderness of 
Paran according to the commandment of the 
Lord : all of them men who were heads of the 

4 children of Israel. And these were their names : 
of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of 

5 Zaccur. Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the 

6 son of Hori. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the 

7 son of Jephunneh. Of the tribe of Issachar, 

8 Igal the son of Joseph. Of the tribe of Ephraim, 

9 Hoshea the son of Nun. Of the tribe of Ben- 

10 jamin, Palti the son of Raphu. Of the tribe of 

11 Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. Of the tribe 
of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, 

12 Gaddi the son of Susi. Of the tribe of Dan, 

13 Ammiel the son of Gemalli. Of the tribe of 

14 Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. Of the tribe of 

15 Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. Of the tribe 

16 of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. These are the 
names of the men which Moses sent to spy out 
the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of 

17 Nun Joshua. And Moses sent them to spy out 
the land of Canaan, and said unto them. Get you 
up this way by the South, and go up into the 



guislied from the more general name, wilder- 
ness of Paran, though not in respect to the in- 
clusion of Caleb alone in the exception to the 
general panic. [It is, perhaps, right for the 
general editor to say that the reasons presented 
by Doctor Genung in support of the hypothesis 
of a " double narrative " do not appear to be con- 
clusive. This Doctor Genung virtually admits 
in the sequel, suggesting himself a natural way 
of accounting for the most striking apparent 
discrepancy, namely, that which relates to the 
extent of the exploration of the country by the 
spies. See comment on ver. 21-33. — A. H.] 

1. And the Lord spake unto Moses. In 
the account of this incident which is put into 
the mouth of Moses in Deuteronomy (oeut. i : 
22), the idea, instead of emanating from the 
Lord, comes as the suggestion to Moses of 
the people. The direction of Jehovah here in 
Numbers is that these men sent shall all be 
heads or princes of their tribes. The men se- 
lected, however, are entirely distinct from the 
heads of the tribes named in chap. 1, 2, though 
Hoshea, the representative here of the tribe of 
Ephraim, is the grandson of Elishama, the 
prince at the head of the tribal host in chap. 2 
(1 Chron. 7 : 26, 27). None of thesc men, as is fit- 
ting, come to any distinction so as to be named 
elsewhere, except Caleb and Hoshea. With 
Caleb this exploit was always a proud reminis- 



cence (Josh. 14 : 6-8), as it brought him the dis- 
tinction of a divine mention and promise (i* : 24). 
Hoshea (ver. le), unaccountably spelled Oshea 
in the Authorized version, is here said to be the 
original name of the servant of Moses already 
familiarly known as Joshua. Moses changed 
his name from Hoshea, which means "salvation" 
or " welfare," to Jehoshua (shortened in English 
to Joshua), " Jah is salvation" ; but whether this 
was done on this occasion or earlier, say on the 
more likely occasion of his victory over Amalek 
(Exod. 17 : 8-13)^ we havc no means of knowing, as 
in all earlier mentions of his name he already 
appears as Joshua, and in only one other place 
(Deut. 32 : 44) is he called by his original name. 
17. These men are directed by Moses to ascend 
the mountains which here at Kadesh lie as a bar- 
rier between them and their future home, known 
as the Amorite hill country (cf. Deut. i : 20), 
and go into the mountain, Negeh, the 
southern and least fertile part of Canaan, ex- 
tending from the south border nearly to Hebron, 
and on into the hill country of Judea. They 
were to make a thorough examination of the 
land in regard to its fertility, its inhabitants, 
and its military strength, and to bring ocular 
demonstration of its characteristics in the form 
of specimens of its products (vcr. 20), 

In ver. 21 we have the story from the P source, 
the same as that from which the first sixteen 



54 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XIII. 



18 And see the land, what it is; and the people 
that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or 
weak, few or many ; 

19 And what the land is that they dwell in, 
whether it be good or bad ; and what cities they be 
that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong 
holds ; 

20 And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, 
whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye 
of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. 
Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes. 

21 So they went up, and searched the land from 
the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to 
Hamath. 

22 And they ascended by the south, and came 
unto Hebron ; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, 
the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was 
built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 

23 And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and 
cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of 
grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff ; 
and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. 

24 The place was called the brook Eshcol, be- 
cause of the cluster of grapes which the children 
of Israel cut down from thence. 



18 mountains : and see the land, what it is ; and 
the people that dwelleth therein, whether they 
be strong or weak, whether they be few or manv ; 

19 and what the land isthat they dwell in, whether 
it be good or bad ; and what cities they be that 
they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strong 

20 holds; and what the land is, whether it be fat 
or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. 
And be ye of good courage, and bring of the 
fruit of the land. Now the time was the time 

21 of the firstripe grapes. So they went up, and 
spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin 

22 unto Rehob, to the entering in of Hamath. And 
they went up by the South, and came unto He- 
bron ; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the 
children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron 
was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 

23 And they came unto the valley of Eshcol, and 
cut down from thence a branch with one cluster 
of grapes, and they bare it upon a staff between 
two ; they brought also of the pomegranates, and 

21 of the figs. That place was called the valley of 
Eshcol, because of the cluster which the chil- 



verses are derived, and this appears again in 
ver. 25 and the first part of 26, and in 32. The 
continuous account as this relates it would be : 
that the spies went through the whole land from 
the south boundary to E.ehob in the far north 
(ver. 21) J and returned at the end of forty days to 
the wilderness of Paran (^er. 25, 26a) ^ and brought 
back an evil report of the land to the eifect that 
it consumed its inhabitants, besides being de- 
fended by men of gigantic stature (ver. 32). On 
the other hand, the story from the JE source, 
which starts in at ver. 17, indicates that the 
spies were directed to go up into the Negeb, and 
so on to the hill country, and make a careful re- 
connaissance bringing back specimens of the 
fruits, as it was early grape harvest (^er. iT-20) ; 
that these went up into the Negeb and on to 
Hebron, finding there the three sons of Anak, 
and brought back various kinds of finiits, es- 
pecially a bimch of grapes of extraordinary 
weight from the valley of Eshcol (ver. 22-24)^ and 
that on their return to Kadesh they showed the 
fruit and admitted that the land was all that 
had been anticipated, but that the people w^ere 
strong and the cities great and fortified ; and, 
finally, before any explicit intimation is given 
that the congregation were panic-stricken, that 
Caleb stilled the people, being in this matter 
opposed by the other spies who maintained their 
inability to take the land (ver. 27-31), and de- 
scribed with great vividness their contrast to the 
Nephilim, the sonsof Anak (ver. 33). 21. The 
wilderness of Zin. This is the desert 
into which the wilderness of Paran merges at 
its northeast side, stretching eastward to the 
Arabah. It is mentioned here, as also in 34 : 
3, seq., as the southern boundary of the Holy 
Land, or Judah (Josh. 15 : 1, 3). In this desert 



Kadesh was situated (20 : 1 ; 27 : 14 ; 33 : 36), and 
the apparent location of Kadesh in the wilder- 
ness of Paran in ver. 26 would indicate that the 
distinction between the wilderness of Paran and 
that of Zin was not always clearly observed. 
Eehob is probably the place mentioned as Beth- 
Eehob in Judg. 18 : 28 (cf. 2 Sam. 10 : 6, 8), near 
the city of Laish which the Danites took and 
named Dan. As men come to Hamath, 
rather, the entering in of Hamath (see e. v.), is 
the valley or pass between Lebanon and Anti- 
Lebanon, called Coele-Syria. It is possible that 
the two accounts of the spies may be haraionized 
by supposing that some of them were instructed 
to keep in the south, while other parties of them 
went to the middle portion and to the far north, 
and returned somewhat later. Those who ex- 
plored the south, at least, found at Hebron the 
three men of the race of Anak, Ahiman, She- 
shai, and Talmai (ver. 22), men whom Caleb after- 
ward drove out (Josh. 15 : 14 ; Judg. 1 : 20). A UOte 

mentions Hebron as very ancient (ver. 22) ; its 
early name was Kiijath-Arba, or city of Arba 
(Gen. 35 : 27), SO Called from Arba, who was the 
greatest man among the Anakim (Josh. 14 : 15), 
indeed, the ancestor of the race (Josh. 21 : 11). 
These sons of Anak were described by the fright- 
ened spies on their return as descendants of the 
Nephilim (ver. 33), a name used elsewhere only 
of the giants or Titans of antediluvian times 
(Gen. 6:4). 23. The brook of Eshcol, or 
rather, valley (see r. v.). This place was evi- 
dently near Hebron ; and that region is cele- 
brated to this day for its vines, which have been 
known to yield clusters, weighing eleven or 
twelve pounds, of grapes like plums in size. 
The bunch of grapes, Heb. vbi?^^, 'eshkol, is 
said by the author to have given at a later period 



Ch. XIV.] 



NUMBERS 



55 



25 And they returned from searching of the Jand 
after forty days. 

26 And they went and came to Moses, and to 
Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children 
of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh ; 
and brought back word unto them, and unto all 
the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of 
the land. 

27 And they told him, and said. We came unto 
the land whither thou sendest us, and surely it 
fioweth with milk and honey ; and this is the fruit 
of it. 

28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell 
in the land, and the cities are walled, and very 
great : and moreover we saw the children of Anak 
there. 

29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south : 
and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Am- 
orites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites 
dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. 

30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and 
said. Let us go up at once, and possess it ; for we 
are well able to overcome it. 

31 But the men that went up with him said. We 
be not able to go up against the people ; for they are 
stronger than we. 

32 And they brought up an evil report of the land 
which they had searched unto the children of 
Israel, saying. The land, through which we have 
gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the in- 
habitants thereof; and all the people that we saw 
in it are men of a great stature. 

33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, 
which come of the giants : and we were in our own 
sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their 
sight. 



25 dren of Israel cut down from thence. And they 
returned from spying out the land at the end of 

26 forty days. And they went and came to Moses, 
and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the 
children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, 
to Kadesh ; and brought back word unto them, 
and unto all the congregation, and shewed them 

27 the fruit of the land. And they told him, and 
said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest 
us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey ; 

28 and this is the fruit of it. Howbeit the people 
that dwell in the land are strong, and the cities 
are fenced, and very great: and moreover we 

29 saw the children of Anak there. Amalek dwell- 
eth in the land of the South : and the Hittite, 
and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, dwell in the 
mountains: and the Canaanite dwelleth by the 

30 sea, and along by the side of Jordan. And 
Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, 
Let us go up at once, and possess it ; for we are 

31 well able to overcome it. But the men that 
went up with him said. We be not able to go up 
against the people ; for they are stronger than 

32 we. And they brought up an evil report of the 
land which they had spied out unto the children 
of Israel, saying. The land, through which we 
have gone to spy it out, is a land that eateth up 
the inhabitants thereof ; and all the people that 

33 we saw in it are men of great stature. And 
there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, 
which come of the Nephilim : and we were in 
our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were 
in their sight. 



the name to the valley (ver. 24). It is to be noted 
that according to Gen. 14 : 13, 24 an Amorite 
living in this region, brother of Mamre and 
Aner, and an ally of Abram, was named Esheol, 
and it is not impossible that the name Esheol, 
which the valley may have already had at the 
visit of the spies, was derived from the ancient 
Canaanite, and that the name through its mean- 
ing came to be associated with the bunch of 
grapes gathered there, and popularly referred 
to that incident for its origin. 36. To Ka- 
desh. The place is here mentioned as in the 
wilderness of Paran, but it is elsewhere said to 
be in the wilderness of Zin. This place is second 
only to Sinai in importance in connection with 
the journeyings of the children of Israel. It is 
first mentioned in Gen. 14 : 7, where it is identi- 
fied with En-Mishpat. A somewhat later name is 
Kadesh-barnea (32 : s; Deut. 1 : 2, etc.)^ or Kadesh 
of wandering. This becomes the headquarters 
of the host of Israel for thirty-eight years, per- 
haps the place of the sanctuary and of Moses' 
residence. It is probably to be identified with 
the site discovered by Rowland in 1842, known 
among the Arabs as 'Ain Qadis, or Holy Well. 
It is in a fertile plain or oasis, where a stream of 
water issues from a wall of limestone rock and 
Is collected into troughs for the watering of cat- 
tle. In Deuteronomy it is described as eleven 
days' journey from Mount Horeb by way of 
Mount Seir (Deut. i : 2). 



The spies come back and show their fruits and 
report that the land is indeed a fertile land, but 
that the people are strong and the cities great 
and strongly fortified (ver. 27, 28). Their special 
bugbear is the sons of Anak, to whom they re- 
cur in ver, 33. The tribes that occupy the land 
are roughly classified and located (ver. 29) ^ Ama- 
lek in the Negeb, the Hittites, Jebusites, and 
Amorites in the hill country, and the Canaanites 
by the sea and in the Jordan Valley. These last, 
who seem to be described as lowlanders, are 
also mentioned as living in other and more 
mountainous regions than the one here specified 
(14 : 43, 45 ; 21 : 1). Caleb, apparently noting the 
rising tide of the people's dissatisfaction, begins 
to still the multitude, but his efibrts only call 
out the more vehement opposition from the re- 
maining spies. It was this hero who in his old 
age chose this very place Hebron, where the 
greatest difiiculties existed, and where the sons 
of Anak were found, as the inheritance which 
he would undertake to conquer and possess (Josh. 
1* : 12). As for Joshua, he does not appear in his 
role of pacifier until the next chapter. 



Chap. 14. The rebellion of the peo- 
ple AND THEIR SENTENCE. The eifcct of the 
adverse report of the spies was first that it 
threw the multitude into an extraordinary 
depression, or as Moses puts it in Deuteron- 
omy (1:28), "made their hearts melt," and 



56 



NUMBERS 



[Ci. XIV. 



CHAPTEK XIV. 



1 AND all the congregation lifted up their voice, 
and cried ; and the people wept that night. 

2 And all the children of Israel murmured against 
Moses and against Aaron : and the whole congre- 
gation said unto them, Would God that we had 
died in the land of Egypt ! or would God we had 
died in this wilderness ! 

3 And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto 
this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and 
our children should be a prey ? were it not better 
for us to return into Egypt? 

4 And they said one to another, Let us make a 
captain, and let us return into Egypt. 

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces be- 
fore all the assembly of the congregation of the 
children of Israel. 

6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son 
Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the 
land, rent their clothes : 

7 And they spake unto all the company of the 
children of Israel, saying, The land, which we 
passed through to search it, is an exceeding good 
land. 

8 If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us 
into this laud, and give it us ; a land which fioweth 
with milk and honey. 

9 Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear 
ye the people of the land ; for they are bread for 
us : their defence is departed from them, and the 
Lord is with us : fear them not. 

10 But all the congregation bade stone them with 
stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the 
tabernacle of the congregation before all the chil- 
dren of Israel. 

11 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will 
this people provoke me ? and how long will it be 
ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have 
shewed among them ? 



1 AND all the congregation lifted up their voice, 
and cried ; and the people wept that night. 

2 And all the children of Israel murmured against 
Moses and against Aaron : and the whole con- 
gregation said unto them, Would God that we 
had died in the land of Egypt ! or would God 

3 we had died in this wilderness ! And wherefore 
doth the Lord bring us unto this land, to fall by 
the sword ? Our wives and our little ones shall 
be a prey : were it not better for us to return 

4 into Egypt ? And they said one to another, Let 
us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. 

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before 
all the assembly of the congregation of the chil- 

6 dren of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun and 
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of 
them that spied out the land, rent their clothes : 

7 and they spake unto all the congregation of the 
children of Israel, saying. The land, which we 
passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding 

8 good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he 
will bring us into this land, and give it unto us ; 
a land which fioweth with milk and honey. 

9 Only rebel not against the Lord, neither fear ye 
the people of the land ; for they are bread for 
us: their defence is removed from over them, 

10 and the Lord is with us : fear them not. But all 
the congregation bade stone them with stones. 
And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent 
of meeting unto all the children of Israel. 

11 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will 
this people despise me ? and how long will they 
not believe in me, for all the signs which I have 



then awakened, as the next stage in their per- 
turbation, an unreasonable resentment against 
their leaders Moses and Aaron. Finally their 
dissatisfaction assumed the more definite shape 
of making inchoate plans to choose a leader and 
go back to Egypt (wr. 4). Moses and Aaron fell 
on their faces before God in order to entreat his 
interposition, but not, according to Deut. 1 : 
29-31, until they had unsuccessfully tried to re- 
assure the people by encouragements and per- 
suasions. Joshua, who now for the first appears 
(ver. 6) as a stillcr of the rebellion, joins Caleb in 
manifesting his grief at the people's perverse- 
ness and in attempting to inspire something of 
an enterprising and warlike spirit. The three- 
fold motive on which they sought to work was 
faith in God, cupidity, and belief in the doom 
of the Canaanites. Not simply the cupidity of 
those seeking homes or places to grow the slow 
fruits of the earth did these heroes attempt to 
arouse, but the fiercer cupidity of those anticipa- 
ting a swift return in the way of spoil. Neither 
fear ye the people of the land ; for they 
are bread for us (ver. 9), perhaps means that 
the people, so far from being an incumbrance 
or drawback, are an additional asset, for they 
represent accumulated wealth, or food ready for 
use, which by a little boldness can immediately 



be secured, so as to bring us at once into plenty. 
And all this is urged as a sure thing because, as 
the picturesque Hebrew expresses it, " their 
shadow is removed from them" (ver. 9) — the 
people, as doomed to destruction by Jehovah, 
are really without defense, however strong they 
may appear. The figurative use of the term 
" shadow" to signify defense or security is not 
uncommon in Hebrew literature (see, e. g., isa. 
30 : 2 ; Ps. 91 : 1 ; 121 : 5). The reasoning was really 
on a very high plane of faith; it was firmly 
grounded on the assurance that Jehovah's favor 
is security, and his displeasure always means 
nakedness and defenselessness despite the strong- 
est armaments. But the people were not in the 
mood for such transcendent reasoning as this ; 
and they began to raise the cry of a mob (ver. lo), 
until the glory of Jehovah shone forth from the 
tent of meeting in its threatening majesty and 
awed them into silence. 

The appearance of the divine glory in the 
tent seems to have been not only intended to 
efiect the rescue of the devoted Joshua and Ca- 
leb, but to portend a momentous communication 
to Moses. Jehovah's sentence on the rebellious 
people, with Moses' intercession, is given in the 
manner perhaps characteristic of JE in ver. 11- 
25, while in ver. 26-38 the same sentence is given 



Ch. XIV.] 



NUMBERS 



57 



12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and dis- 
inherit them, and will make of thee a greater na- 
tion and mightier than they. 

13 And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the 
Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this 
people in thy might from among them ;) 

14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this 
land : for they have heard that thou Lord art among 
this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, 
and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that 
thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a 
cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. 

15 Now if thou Shalt kill all this people as one 
man, then the nations which have heard the fame 
of thee will speak, saying, 

16 Because the Lord was not able to bring this 
people into the land which he sware unto them, 
therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 

17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my 
Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, 
saying, 

18 The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, 
forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no 
means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of 
the fathers upon the children unto the third and 
fourth generation. 

19 Pardon, 1 beseech thee, the iniquity of this 
people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, 
and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt 
even until now. 

20 And the Lord said, I have pardoned according 
to thy word : 

21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be 
filled with the glory of the Lord. 

22 Because all those men which have seen my 
glory, and my miracles, which I did In Egypt and 
in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these 
ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice ; 

23 Surely they shall not see the land which I 
sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them 
that provoked me see it : 

24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another 
spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him 
will I bring into the land whereinto he went ; and 
his seed shall possess it. 



12 wrought among them ? I will smite them with 
the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will 
make of thee a nation greater and mightier than 

13 they. And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the 
Egyptians shall hear it ; for thou broughtest up 

14 this people in thy might from among them ; and 
they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land : 
they have heard that thou Lord art in the midst 
of this people ; for thou Lord art seen face to 
face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and 
thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by 

15 day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if 
thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the 
nations which have heard the fame of thee will 

16 speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to 
bring this people into the land which he sware 
unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the 

17 wilderness. And now, I pray thee, let the power 
of the Lord be great, according as thou hast 

18 spoken, saying. The Lord is slow to anger, and 
plenteous in mercy, forgiving iniquity and trans- 
gression, and that will by no means clear the 
guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
the children, upon the third and upon the fourth 

19 generation. Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity 
of this people according unto the greatness of 
thy mercy, and according as thou hast forgiven 

20 this people, from Egypt even until now. And 
the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy 

21 word : but in very deed, as I live, and as all the 
earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord ; 

22 because all those men which have seen my glory, 
and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in 
the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten 
times, and have not hearkened to my voice ; 

23 surely they shall not see the land which I sware 
unto their fathers, neither shall any of them 

24 that despised me see it : but my servant Caleb, 
because he had another spirit with him, and 
hath followed me fully, him will I bring into 
the land whereinto he went ; and his seed shall 



in a somewhat different form more characterized 
by the style of P. God's patience is represented 
as sorely tried (ver. ii)^ and the proposal which 
first appeared in Exod. 32 : 10 to destroy the na- 
tion and make Moses a new national founder is 
here repeated. Moses again, as in that chapter, 
reasons with Jehovah, urging here, however, 
the consideration, not that the Egyptians would 
interpret the Israelites' destruction as a proof of 
Jehovah's malignity (cf. Exod. 32 : 12)^ but that 
they, and all the nations to whom they would 
tell of the glorious starting out of the exodus 
(ver. 13) J would reason that the divine strength 
was exhausted in the wilderness without being 
able to bring its intentions to pass. Then Moses 
pleads that the power of the Lord, if that must 
be manifested, may be seen in confirming that 
revelation of his mercy which he had made to 
Moses when he asked God at Sinai to show him 
his glory (Exod. 34 : 6, seq.). An impressivc thing 
it is, and an exaltation of Old Testament revela- 
tion, to see a mortal fully possessed of the truth 
that the highest divine glory is forbearance and 
mercy, and pleading that truth with God against 
an implacableness which, no doubt to test his 



servant, God apparently assumed. Moses' self- 
devotion does not on this occasion reach the sub- 
lime height which it reached at Sinai where he 
entreated that Jehovah would blot him out of 
his book rather than refuse to forgive the peo- 
ple's sin (Exod. 32 : 32)^ but he apparently pleads 
God's revealed mercy to such good purpose that 
God promises to forgive his countrymen. Je- 
hovah, however, takes a solemn oath that none 
of these men who have seen his glory and his 
signs, and have tempted or exasperated him ten 
times, shall see the land which he swore to their 
fathers, except Caleb Avho had another spirit in 
him and has followed him fully. 

The number ten (ver. 22), as applied to the 
occasions when the Israelites tried the patience 
of God, no doubt is meant simply as equivalent 
to an indefinite complete number — "times 
enough." The rabbis, however, always pro- 
saic, reckon up the precise occasions on which 
these temptations occurred, and of course with 
sufficient ingenuity make them agree with the 
number here. They are : at the Red Sea (Exod. 
14 : 11, seq. ) ; at Marah (Exod. 15 : 23, seq.), in the wil- 
derness of Sin (Exod. 16 : 2, seq.); their disregard 



58 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XIV. 



25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt 
in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you 
into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. 

26 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 
Aaron, saying, 

27 How long shall 1 bear with this evil congrega- 
tion, which murmur against me? I have heard 
the murmurings of the children of Israel, which 
they murmur against me. 

28 Say unto them. As truly as I live, saith the 
Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do 
to you : 

29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness ; 
and all that were numbered of you, according to 
your whole number, from twenty years old and 
upward, which have murmured against me, 

30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, 
concerning which I sware to make you dwell there- 
in, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua 
the son of Nun. 

81 But your little ones, which ye said should be 
a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know 
the land which ye have despised. 

32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in 
this wilderness. 

33 And your children shall wander in the wilder- 
ness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until 
your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. 

34 After the number of the days in which ye 
searched the land, even forty days, each day for a 
year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, 
and ye shall know my breach of promise. 

35 I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto 
all this evil congregation, that are gathered to- 
gether against me : in this wilderness they shall be 
consumed, and there they shall die. 

36 And the men. which Moses sent to search the 
land, who returned, and made all the congregation 
to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander 
upon the land, 



25 possess it. Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite 
dwell in the valley : to-morrow turn ye, and get 
you into the wilderness by the way to the Red 
Sea. 

26 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 

27 Aaron, saying. How long shall I bear with this evil 
congregation, which murmur against me? I have 
heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, 

28 which they murmur against me. Say unto them, 
As I live, saith the Lord, surely as ye have 

29 spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you : your 
carcases shall fall in this wilderness ; and all 
that were numbered of you, according to your 
whole number, from twenty years old and up- 

30 ward, which have murmured against me, surely 
ye shall not come into the land, concerning 
which I lifted up my hand that I would make 
you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Je- 

31 phunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your 
little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them 
will I bring in, and they shall know the land 

32 which ye have rejected. But as for you, your 

33 carcases shall fall in this wilderness. And 
your children shall be wanderers in the wilder- 
ness forty years, and shall bear your whore- 
doms, until your carcases be consumed in the 

34 wilderness. After the number of the days in 
which ye spied out the land, even fortj'^ days, 
for every day a year, shall ye bear your ini- 
quities, even forty years, and ye shall know my 

35 alienation. I the Lord have spoken, surely this 
will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are 
gathered together against me : in this wilderness 
they shall be consumed, and there they shall 

36 die. And the men, which Moses sent to spy out 
the land, who returned, and made all the con- 
gregation to murmur against him, by bringing 



of directions regarding the manna (Exod. le : 20) ; 
their attempt to gather it on the seventh day 
(Exod. 16 : 2T, 28) ; their miirmuring for water at 
Meribah (Exod. 17 : 2, seq.) ; their sin with the gold- 
en calf (Exod. 32) ; the burning at Taberah (Num. 
11 : 1, seq. ) ; the murmuring of the mixed multi- 
tude at Kibroth-Hattaawah (Num. 11 .-4, seq.) ; and 
finally this occasion. 

In ver. 25 the fatal command is issued. It is 
preceded by the statement that the Amalekite 
and the Canaanite dwell in the valley or plain, 
a statement which but imperfectly accords with 
13 : 29 and 14 : 43, 45, where these tribes are 
described as mountaineers. The command is 
that on the morrow the people shall turn south- 
ward and strike into the wilderness by the Eed 
Sea road — the modern Hajj route from 'Aqabah 
to Suez — for their long wandering. 

26-45. In this section the sentence of Jehovah 
against the rebellious people is repeated in quite 
different terms and in another style. There is no 
divine threat appeased by human intercession, 
but a prediction in prosaic statistical terms, em- 
bellished by arithmetical coincidences and grim 
humor, of what shall befall the people and their 
children, the recurring burden being, your 
carcases shall fall in this wilderness, or 
its equivalent (ver. 29, 32, 33, 35). Both Caleb and 



Joshua, instead of Caleb alone as in the preced- 
ing section, are exempted from the sentence of 
exclusion (ver. 30). The fulfillment of the wish 
which in their panic they uttered, that they 
might die in the wilderness, is grimly forced 
upon them (ver. 29) ; the prediction that their 
children should become a prey is falsified by the 
assertion that these shall supersede them in the 
privilege of beholding the Promised Land (ver. 
31), though they must first be shepherds in the 
wilderness forty years as an infliction for their 
parents' unfaithfulness. The correspondence of 
the forty years' wandering with the forty days 
spent by those spies who in one narrative were 
said to have gone to Rehob (is : 21, 25) is drawn 
out with a kind of relish, the most depressing 
fact of that wandering being described as, that 
they shall know or experience what it is to have 
God turn away from them. 34. My breach 
of promise is more exactly rendered, viy 
turning away. SeeR. V. The wandering which 
in this narrative is apparently described as ex- 
hibiting an exact coincidence with the forty 
days' expedition is elsewhere said to have lasted 
thirty-eight years (oeut. 2 : 14). 

The story goes on in ver. 36, 37 to relate what 
was the fate of the spies who brought in an evil 
report of the land. It is not expressly said that 



Ch. XV.] 



NUMBERS 



59 



37 Even those men that did bring up the evil re- 
port upon the land, died by the plague before the 
Lord, 

38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son 
of Jephunneh, which were of the men that w^ent to 
search the land, lived still. 

39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the chil- 
dren of Israel : and the people mourned greatly. 

40 And they rose up early in the morning, and 
gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, 
Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which 
the Lord hath promised : for we have sinned. 

41 And Moses said. Wherefore now do ye trans- 
gress the commandment of the Lord ? but it shall 
not prosper. 

42 Go not up, for the Lord is not among you ; 
that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 

43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are 
there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword : 
because ye are turned away from the Lord, there- 
fore the Lord will not be with you. 

44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top ; 
nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, 
and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 

45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the 
Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote 
them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah. 



37 up an evil report against the land, even those 
men that did bring up an evil report of the land, 

38 died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua 
the son of Nun, and Caleb the sou of Jephunneh, 
remained alive of those men that went to spy 

39 out the land. And Moses told these words unto 
all the children of Israel : and the people 

40 mourned greatly. And they rose up early in 
the morning, and gat them up to the top of the 
mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go 
up unto the place which the Lord hath promised : 

41 for we have sinned. And Moses said. Wherefore 
now do ye transgress the commandment of the 

42 Lord, seeing it shall not prosper? Go not up, for 
the Lord is not among you ; that ye be not smit- 

43 ten down before your enemies. For there the 
Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, 
and ye shall fall by the sword : because ye are 
turned back from following the Lord, therefore 

44 the Lord will not be with you. But they pre- 
sumed to go up to the top of the mountain : 
nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the 
Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 

45 Then the Amalekite came down, and the Ca- 
naanite which dwelt in that mountain, and 
smote them and beat them down, even unto 
Hormah. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, | 1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. 



this stroke from the Lord's presence occurred at 
this time ; and the passage may be taken as an 
anticipation of the later history of these men, 
just as the following verse anticipates the later 
history of Joshua and Caleb. Deut. 2 : 15 seems 
to indicate that there was an unusual sickliness 
in the camp during the thirty-eight years which 
shortened the life of the whole generation. As 
for the statement made here and repeatedly (e. g., 
Num. 26 : 63-65) that Hot one of thosc over twenty 
years of age save Caleb and Joshua survived to 
the second numbering under Eleazar, we must 
surely modify it to the extent of excepting 
Eleazar himself who was a prominent leader at 
the time of the first numbering at Sinai (Num. 3 : 
3, 32; Exod. 28 : i), and survivcd to conduct the 
second numbering in person. 

The sentence, which had been given from the 
tent of meeting to Moses, was now reported to 
the people, and they were greatly exercised at 
the consequences of their rebellion. Their 
spirit, however, seems not to have been that of 
genuine repentance, but rather a feverish eager- 
ness to undo their error and snatch the fleeting 
opportunity just vanishing out of their grasp. 
40, They rose up early in the morning, 
and went up to the top of the mountain, 
i. e., evidently not to the highest summit, but 
to some intermediate spur or table-land, as the 
Amalekites and Canaanites still " came down " 
(ver. 45) to meet them when the battle occurred. 
They offered to make the invasion of the Prom- 
ised Land at once, but Moses warned them 
that they would not succeed. He assured them 
that Jehovah was no longer with them (ver. «) ; 



they had turned back from following him, so 
that they could no more count on his assist- 
ance. 44. Nevertheless they presumed, lit., 
made a swell, to go up to the top of the 

mountain, but the ark of the covenant and 
Moses stayed in the camp. This idea of the 
ark as a palladium is more characteristic of the 
JE source, which seems to be drawn upon in 
this section, than of the later legislation of P, 
which enjoins a more elaborate seclusion of the 
sacred coffer (see on lo : ss-se). 45. Orphaned of 
the divine assistance as the people were, the 
Amalekite and Canaanite came down . . . and 
smote them, and discomfited them, even 
unto Hormah. These tribes, which Moses in 
Deuteronomy (i = 44) calls by the more general 
title of Amorites, or hill-country men, are said 
in that place to have chased them as bees do in 
Seir, The place Hormah, or HD'^n, Charmah, 
is so named here by anticipation, as it appar- 
ently did not receive this name until afterwards. 
It was formerly called Zephath (Judg. i : it), and 
in two places the name Charmah, or Place of the 
ban, is accounted for as arising from the fact of 
its utter destruction by the Israelites as provided 

for (Lev. 27 : 28, 29 ; Num. 21 : 3 ; Judg. 1-17), From 

the apparent resemblance of the name Zephath 
— which is not very clear, however — ancient 
Hormah has been conjecturally identified with 
Sebatah, a group of noble ruins in the Negeb 
about twenty-five miles north of Kadesh. 



Chap. 15. Laws regarding various of- 
ferings. The Sabbath-breaker. The 
LAW OF "fringes." 1-16. In this chapter 



60 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XV. 



2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, When ye be come into the land of your habi- 
tations, which I give unto you, 

3 And will make an offering by fire unto the Lord, 
a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, 
or in a freewill offering, or in your solemn feasts, to 
make a sweet savour unto the Lord, of the herd, or 
of the flock : 

4 Then shall he that offereth his offering unto the 
Lord bring a meat offering of a tenth deal of flour 
mingled with the fourth, part of an hin of oil. 

5 And the fourth part of an hin of wine for a 
drink offering shalt thou prepare with the burnt 
offering or sacrifice, for one lamb. 

6 Or for a ram, thou shalt prepare for a meat 
offering two tenth deals of flour mingled with the 
third part of an hin of oil. 

7 And for a drink offering thou shalt offer the 
third part of an hin of wine, for a sweet savour unto 
the Lord. 

8 And when thou preparest a bullock /or a burnt 
offering, or for a sacrifice in performing a vow, or 
peace offerings unto the Lord : 

9 Then shall he bring with a bullock a meat offer- 
ing of three tenth deals of flour mingled with half 
an hin of oil. 

10 And thou shalt bring for a drink offering half 
an hin of wine, for an oft'ering made by fire, of a 
sweet savour unto the Lord. 

11 Thus shall it be done for one bullock, or for 
one ram, or for a lamb, or a kid. 

12 According to the number that ye shall pre- 
pare, so shall ye do to every one according to their 
number. 

13 All that are born of the country shall do these 
things after this manner, In offering an offering 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. 

14 And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whoso- 
ever be among you in your generations, and will 
offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto 
the Lord ; as ye do, so he shall do. 

15 One ordinance shall be both for you of the con- 
gregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth 
with you, an ordinance for ever in your genera- 
tions : as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the 
Lord. 

16 One law and one manner shall be for you, and 
for the stranger that sojourneth with you. 



2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, When ye be come into the land of your 

3 habitations, which I give unto you, and 'will 
make an offering by fire unto the Lord, a burnt 
offering, or a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or 
as a freewill offering, or in your set feasts, to 
make a sweet savour unto the' Lord, of the herd, 

4 or of the flock : then shall he that offereth his 
oblation oft'er unto the Lord a meal offering of a 
tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled with 

5 the fourth part of an hin of oil : and wine for 
the drink offering, the fourth part of an hin, 
shalt thou prepare with the burnt offering or for 

6 the sacrifice, for each lamb. Or for a ram, thou 
shalt prepare for a meal offering two tenth parts 
of an ephah of fine flour mingled with the third 

7 part of an hin of oil : and for the drink offering 
thou shalt offer the third part of an hin of wine, 

8 of a sweet savour unto the Lord. And when 
thou preparest a bullock for a burnt offering, or 
for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace 

9 offerings unto the Lord : then shall he offer with 
the bullock a meal offering of three tenth parts 
of an ephah of the fine flour mingled with half 

10 an hin of oil. And thou shalt offer for the drink 
offering half an hin of wine, for an offering 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. 

11 Thus shall it be done for each bullock, or for 
each ram, or for each of the he-lambs, or of the 

12 kids. According to the number that ye shall 
prepare, so shall ye do to every one according 

13 to their number. All that are homeborn shall 
do these things after this manner, in offering an 
offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the 

14 Lord. And if a stranger sojourn with you, or 
whosoever be among you throughout yo'ur gen- 
erations, and will offer an offering made by fire, 
of a sweet savour unto the Lord ; as ye do, so he 

35 shall do. For the assembly, there shall be one 
statute for you, and for the stranger that so- 
journeth uith you, a statute for ever throughout 
3'our generations : as ye are, so shall the stranger 

16 be before the Lord. One law and one ordinance 
shall be for you, and for the stranger that 
sojourneth with you. 



we find the characteristic style and theme of 
the priest-code as this is seen predominantly- 
all through Leviticus. The ordinances, as also 
in various places in that book (Lev. 19 : 23 ; 
23 : 10 ; 25 : 2 ; eto.)^ havc explicit reference to the 
time when the people shall come into their 
land ; but so dispassionately does the chapter 
refer to that time, and so completely does it 
ignore the fact that the whole generation has 
just been condemned to a death in the wilder- 
ness, that it seems clear that it could not have 
been written in immediate connection with the 
history of the preceding chapter, but was rather 
inserted from some other source. It is useless 
to attempt to exhibit any close or necessary con- 
nection of thought between these insertions from 
the priest-code and the sequence of the history 
in which they occur. 

The purpose of these directions seems to be to 
supply some details regarding the quantity of fine 
flour and wine to be used in the meal and drink 
offerings which belong to the sacrifices appro- 
priate for the fulfillment of vows or for spon- 



taneous expressions of devotion. It seems to be 
taken for granted thaL the coming into the land 
where oil and wine may be had will naturally 
result in many fervent and joyous expressions 
of this kind. When the meal offering is de- 
scribed in Lev. 2 there is no mention of the 
drink offering or libation, though some scattered 
notices (Esod. 29 : 40; Lev. 23 : 13) seem to indicate 
that it was a natui-al accompaniment of the 
meal offering. In this place the definite amount 
of flour and wine appropriate for each oflering 
of a lamb, or for each beast in the larger func- 
tions where many victims are offered at a time, 
is carefully prescribed. These are : for a lamb 
an jTnt!^>*, 'issaron, or tenth (of an ephah) of 
fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of oil, 
with a libation of the same quantity of wine, 
these being the amounts prescribed in Exod. 
29 : 40 for the lamb of the morning and evening 
sacrifice. For a ram the flour is doubled, while 
the fraction of the hin of wine and oil is one- 
third. Three-tenths of flour with a half-hin 
each of oil and wine accompany the sacrifice 



Ch. XV.] 



NUMBERS 



61 



17 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

18 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, When ye come into the laud whither I bring 
you, 

19 Then it shall be, that, when ye eat of the bread 
of the land, ye shall offer up an heave offering unto 
the Lord. 

20 Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your 
dough for an heave offering : as ye do the heave 
offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it. 

21 Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto 
the Lord an heave offering in your generations. 

22 And if ye have erred, and not observed all 
these commandments, which the Lord hath spoken 
unto Moses, 

23 Even all that the Lord hath commanded you 
by the hand of Moses, from the day that tlie Lord 
commanded Moses, and henceforward among your 
generations ; 

24 Then it shall be, if ought be committed by 
ignorance without the knowledge of the congrega- 
tion, that all the congregation shall offer one young 
bullock for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour unto 
the Lord, with his meat offering, and his drink offer- 
ing, according to the manner, and one kid of the 
goats for a sin offering. 

25 And the priest shall make an atonement for 
all the congregation of the children of Israel, and 
it shall be forgiven them ; for it is ignorance : and 
they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by 
fire unto the Lord, and their sin offering before the 
Lord, for their ignorance : 

26 And it shall be forgiven all the congregation 
of the children of Israel, and the stranger that 
sojourneth among them ; seeing all the people were 
in ignorance. 

27 And if any soul sin through ignorance, then 
he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin 
offering. 

28 And the priest shall make an atonement for 
the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when hesinneth 
by ignorance before the Lord, to make an atone- 
ment for him ; and it shall be forgiven him. 



17 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

18 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
theui. When ye come into the laud whither I 

19 bring you, then it shall be, that, when ye eat of 
the bread of the land, ye shall offer up an heave 

20 offering unto the Lord. Of the first of your 
dough ye shall offer up a cake for an heave 
offering : as ye do the heave offering of the 

21 threshing-floor, so shall ye heave it. Of the first 
of your dough ye shall give unto the Lord an 
heave offering throughout your generations. 

22 And when ye shall err, and not observe all 
these commandments, which the Lord hath 

23 spoken unto Moses, even all that the Lord hath 
commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the 
day that the Lord gave commandment, and on- 

24 ward throughout your generations ; then it shall 
be, if it be done unwittingly, without the knowl- 
edge of the congregation, that all the congrega- 
tion shall offer one young bullock for a burnt 
offering, for a sweet savour unto the Lord, with 
the meal offering thereof, and the drink offering 
thereof, according to the ordinance, and one he- 

25 goat for a sin offering. And the priest shall 
make atonement for all the congregation of the 
children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven ; 
for it was an error, and they have brought their 
oblation, an offering made by fire unto the Lord, 
and their sin offering before the Lord, for their 

26 error: and all the congregation of the children 
of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger that 
sojourneth among them ; for in respect of all 

27 the people it was done unwittingly. And if one 
person sin unwittingly, then he shall offer a she- 

28 goat of the first year for a sin offering. And the 
priest shall make atonement for the soul that 
erreth, when he sinneth unwittingly, before the 
Lord, to make atonement for him ; and he shall 



of a bullock. These proportions must be re- 
peated with each victim when many are offered 
in a series. It is carefully specified that. this 
regulation is a uniform one, not only for the 
home-born, but for foreigners sojourning among 
them who may wish to fulfill vows or ofier free- 
will offerings to Jehovah. 

17-21. The first realizing of the products of the 
land after the people's entrance thither is to be 
signalized by the offering of a HD^J^, {rumah, 
or heave offering to Jehovah. This is to be a cake 
of the first grits or coarse meal (ver. 20) , just as 
in the case of the t'rumah of the threshing- 
floor, which is alluded to as well known, though 
mentioned only here. The ceremony is not re- 
stricted to the first harvest after entering the 
land, but is to be the perpetual custom (ver. 21), 

It will be remembered that in regard to newly 
planted trees a peculiar system of regarding the 
fruit as uncircumcised for three years, and 
wholly consecrated for one year more, before it 
could be eaten, is instituted in Lev. 19 : 23-25. 

22-31. The HID^"!!^, t'rumoth, were the per- 
quisite of the priests, as is more fully set forth 
in the eighteenth chapter. All peace offerings 
must pay the tribute of the right thigh as a 



t'rumah to the priest (Lev. 7 : 32). The custom 
of offering first fruits was enjoined in the earliest 
legislation (Exod. 23 : 19) and repeatedly, and this 
particular offering of coarse meal is referred to 
in Ezek. 44 : 30 and Neh. 10 : 37. 

22-31. This section seems to betray a con- 
sciousness on the part of the legislator that the 
ordinances are becoming somewhat complex and 
numerous for an ordinary person, or even the 
whole congregation, to be sure of remembering ; 
and the main objective point seems to be to assure 
the people that if the sin is unintentional (ver. 24- 
29) there is provision for atonement. In form the 
enactment starts out as if intended to cover only 
sins of omission (ver. 22)^ and this is often taken 
as the intended distinction from the legislation 
in Lev. 4, and thus as explaining the slight dif- 
ference in the victims and sacrifices prescribed. 
The main difference is that here the bullock for 
the congregation is prescribed as a burnt offer- 
ing, while in the case of the sin of the anointed 
priest (Lev. 4 : 3, seq.), or of the whole congrega- 
tion (ibid., 13, seq.), according to Leviticus, the 
bullock is to be offered as a sin offering. It is 
questionable, however, whether this restriction 
to sins of omission is intended throughout (see 



62 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XV. 



29 Ye shall have one law for him that siuneth 
through ignorance, both fur him that is born among 
the children of Israel, and for the stranger that 
sojourneth among tliem. 

30 But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, 
whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the 
same reproacheth the Lord ; and that soul shall be 
cut ofJ from among his people. 

31 Because he hath despised the word of the 
Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that 
soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shaU be 
upon him. 

32 And while the children of Israel were in the 
wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks 
upon the sabbath day. 

33 And they that found him gathering sticks 
brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all 
the congregation. 

34 And they put him in ward, because It was not 
declared what should be done to him. 

35 And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall 
be surely put to death : all the congregation shall 
stone him with stones without the camp. 

36 And all the congregation brought him with- 
out the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he 
died ; as the Lord commanded Moses. 



29 be forgiven. Ye shall have one law for him that 
doeth aught unwittingly, for him that is home- 
born among the chilUren of iMael, and for the 

80 stranger that sojourneth among them. But the 
soul that doeth aught with an high hand, 
whether he be home born or a stranger, the 
same blasphemeth the Lord ; and that soul 

31 shall be cut off from among his people. Because 
he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath 
broken his commandment ; that soul shall ut- 
terly be cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him. 

32 And while the children of Israel were in the 
wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks] 

33 upon the sabbath day. And they that found 
him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses 

34 and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And 
they put him in ward, because it had not been 

35 declared what should be done to him. And the 
Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be 
put to death : all the congregation shall stone 

36 him with stones without the camp. And all the] 
congregation brought him without the camp, 
and stoned him with stones, and he died ; as the 
Lord commanded Moses. 



ver. 24, 27, 29) ^ as a popular provision for a pure 
negative would be somewhat difficult to main- 
tain or enforce. It is more likely that the 
passage here and that in Leviticus represent 
slightly different strata of legislation, this being 
inserted especially to emphasize the distinction 
between sins of error and sins of presumption. 
For sins of error only is the provision made ; 
while for the one who commits sin with a ** high 
hand" (ver. so) there remains only the stern 
penalty of cutting off from among the people, 
as the presimiptuous sin is constructive blas- 
phemy. The commandment is asserted to be 
binding for home-born and foreigner alike 

(ver. 29, 30 ). 

This legal principle that a transgression must 
be strictly a sin of error or ignorance in order 
to be accessible to remission appears to have 
become very deeply ingrained into Jewish 
thought; so that even the unlearned Peter, in 
calling to repentance those who had been parties 
to the death of Christ, grounds his gospel of 
remission on the consideration that they had 
done it <o.Ta. ayvotav^ or through ignorance (Acts 
3:1"). In this incident we may perhaps catch 
a glimpse of an interesting fact in human 
nature, exemplified in Jewish progress between 
the time of this legislation and that of Christ 
and paralleled in the legal history of other na- 
tions. This is, that as human feeling becomes 
milder, laws which, though remaining in force, 
become too harsh for public sentiment to tolerate 
are often evaded or made consistent with more 
merciful treatment by the device of liberal in- 
terpretation. Thus in England, long before the 
law which prescribed the death penalty for 
petty theft was repealed, juries would take 
care, though often absurdly, to estimate the 



amount of the theft at less than the fatal limit 
in order to save the life of the cidprit. In a 
similar way we may perhaps see that among 
the Jews this harsh law that every transgression 
not strictly in error should be punished by 
death became modified by a liberal interpreta- 
tion of what constituted error. At least Peter 
must have been accustomed to a very liberal 
understanding of the matter to be able to con- 
cede that not only the people but also their 
rulers, those men who had so deliberately set 
about, by corrupting his disciples, and even 
by employing false testimony, to compass the 
death of Christ, had done the deed through 
ignorance. 

32-36. The introduction of this incident by 
the note of time, while the children of Israel 
were in the Avilde mess, not only marks it 
as an isolated event picked out from among the 
occurrences of the forty years' wandering, but 
also stamps it as the utterance of an author who 
was not himself in the wilderness at the time of 
writing. It appears to be an example of the 
high-handed sin for which there was no atone- 
ment, or the constructive blasphemy whose 

penalty was stoning (cf. John 8 : 59; Acts 7 : 58). 

The penalty for Sabbath-breaking is in other 
places prescribed as cutting off from among the 
people, or death (Exod. si .- u; 35 : 2), but the pre- 
caution of putting the man in custody until 
some decision could be obtained regarding him 
woidd be necessary in order to determine the 
precise degree of presumption in his case, and 
so whether it was a crime subject to the punish- 
ment of blasphemy. Jehovah's direction to 
Moses was that the man should be stoned with 
stones by the whole congregation, a form of 
punishment which, as it employed all the people 



Oh. XVI. ] 



NtTMBEBS 



63 



37 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid 
them that they make them fringes in the borders 
of their garments throughout their generations, 
and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a 
ribband of blue: 

39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye 
may look upon it, and remember all the command- 
ments of the Lord, and d.o them ; and that ye seek 
not after your own heart and your own eyes, after 
which ye use to go a whoring : 

40 That ye may remember, and do all my com- 
mandments, and be holy unto your God. 

41 I am the Lord your God, which brought you 
out of the land of Egypt, to be your God : I am the 
Lord your God. 



37 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them 
that they make them fringes in the borders of 
their garments throughout their generations, 
and that they put upon the fringe of each bor- 

39 der a cord of blue : and it shall be unto you for 
a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remem- 
ber all the commandments of the Lord, and do 
them ; and that ye go not about after your own 
heart and your own eyes, and after which ye 

40 use to go a whoring : that ye may remember 
and do all my commandments, and be holy 

41 unto your God. I am the Lord your God, which 
brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your 
God : I am the Lord your God. 



as executioners, called out the most widespread 
interest possible in the enforcing of law and 
order. 

37-41. The translation of this passage as it is 
found in the Revised version is more faithful to 
the Hebrew. A command similar to this is given 
also in Deut. 22 : 12, though with a different 
word for "fringe." Much care and ingenuity 
were expended by the Jews on the construction 
of these fringes or tassels. They so arranged 
the threads and knots as to set forth symbol- 
ically the six hundred and thirteen precepts of 
which the law was believed to consist. The or- 
dinary Jewish outer garment was a square piece 
of cloth, something like a plaid, and the tassels 
were attached to each of the four corners. In 
later times, as the fashion of dress changed, a 
smaller piece of cloth called the tallith was sub- 
stituted and worn as an undergarment. It is 
still used in the synagogue. Apparently our 
Lord wore an outer garment with a Kpaam^ov^ or 
fringe, which the people were eager to touch 
as a conveyer of healing power (Matt. 9 : 20; 14 : 
36; Mark 6 : 56) ; and the Pharisces in his time 
were accustomed to make these tassels or fringes 
on their garments very large in token of their 
peculiar strictness or sanctity (Matt. 23 : 5). 

The reason given for the use of these tassels is 
that the wearers may look upon them and be 
reminded of the commandments of Jehovah 
(ver. 39) J and especially that their attention 
might be kept at home instead of their " spying 
out" after their own heart as those that are led 
into impure desires by inflaming sights. The 
verb used is the same as that which describes 
the act of the spies in exploring the Promised 
Land. Their high privilege and obligation of 
being a holy people, a people whose God was 
Jehovah the deliverer from Egypt, was thus 
constantly kept before them. It became like 
the badge of an order, calculated to remind the 
people that they had something to live up to, 
and thus to foster and develop the esprit of the 
nation. 



Chap. 16. Eebellion of Koeah, Da- 
THAN, AND Abikam. The company, the mo- 
tives, and the places and manners of punish- 
ment in this extensive uprising are so obviously 
diverse and so easily separable that modern 
critics very confidently discover two or perhaps 
three narratives combined in this chapter. That 
the main basis of this and the following chapter, 
which belongs with it, is priestly is apparent ; 
the attack of Korah and his company is pri- 
marily upon the priestly prerogatives enjoyed 
by the tribe of Levi, or the family of Aaron ; 
and the result of the total vindication of the di- 
vine Levitical arrangement is a very wholesome 
dread on the part of the lay congregation for the 
awful sanctities of the tabernacle (see 17 : 12, 13). 
As an account of a rebellion of laymen against 
the exclusive privileges of the priesthood the 
narrative moves in the sphere of P. A further 
differentiation is made in the P element by 
which a part, designated as P^ (see ver. 8-11, 36-4o)^ 
is distinguished as making the rebellion a move- 
ment of the Levites or inferior priests against 
the family of Aaron, i. e., a schism in the 
priestly body itself. But aside from this strife 
over sacerdotal privileges there appears to be, 
on the part of Dathan and Abiram, a dissatis- 
faction with Moses as a civil ruler (see ver. 13) ; 
and these men appear to be punished in their 
own tents, instead of at the sanctuary, and for 
contumacy rather than for presuming to offer 
incense. They do not seem to have been guilty 
of sacrilege ; they were rebellious. This causes 
the critics to assign the parts relating to these 
Reubenites to JE. Thus Driver says: "In 
JE Dathan and Abiram, Reubenites, give vent 
to their dissatisfaction with Moses, complain- 
ing (ver. 14) that his promises have been un- 
fulfilled, and resenting the authority (13^^) and 
judgeship (15^) possessed by him : they, Avith 
their tents and houseliolds, are swallowed up 
by the earth (ver. 27-34). This is a rebellion 
of laymen against the civil authority claimed 
by Moses." 



64 



NUMBEBB 



[Ch. XVI. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



1 NOW Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Ko- 
hath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, 
the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sous 
of Reuben, took men : 

2 And they rose up before Moses, with certain of 
the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty- 
princes of the assembly, famous in the congrega- 
tion, men of renown : 



NOW Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Ko- 
hath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, 
the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, 
sons of Reuben, took men -. and they rose up be- 
fore Moses, with certain of the children of Is- 
rael, two hundred and fifty princes of the con- 
gregation, called to the assembly, men of 



1-3. There is no doubt evidence of more or 
less compilation and redaction in this account ; 
but whether the whole is a badly welded narra- 
tive of two or three separate rebellions confused 
with each other, or whether it is a history of one 
widespread uprising of the theoretically conse- 
crated people against the priests, headed and 
perhaps instigated by Korah who presented 
their plea as their advocate and yet had ulte- 
rior aims of his own, will be considered as we 
examine the variant passages more in detail. 

The chief instigator, or informing spirit, of 
this rebellion, from whom it always takes its 
name, was Korah, who belonged to that family 
of the Levitical tribe which was concerned with 
the care of the most holy furniture of the taber- 
nacle — ^the family of Kohath. To this family 
also belonged Moses and Aaron, who were of 
the branch of Amram, while Korah came of the 
next brother Izhar (cf. Exod. 6 : is), Korah was 
therefore near enough to the priestly dignity to 
aspire to a place in the front rank ; and as he 
saw the priesthood becoming legally restricted 
and fixed in the family of Aaron he felt that the 
remaining Levites had reason for discontent. 
It is to be noted that previous to the time of 
Deuteronomy the rigid distinction between 
priests and Levites does not appear always to 
have been clearly maintained (see on 3 : 5-io); 
and this account of Korah 's rebellion may well 
be taken as reflecting the dissatisfaction which 
arose when the Levites — whatever time that 
may have been in Israelitish history — found 
themselves being relegated to the position of 
subordinate temple militia. 

It is this dissatisfaction at being a subordinate 
priest which the penetrating Moses detects in 
Korah as his personal motive in stirring up the 
rebellion (see ver. 8-11). But like all masterful 
and ambitious men Korah has his company 
whom he makes his tools to help him into 
power; and these he has fired with a quite dif- 
ferent and more popular dissatisfaction. Ko- 
rah' s more immediate company consists of two 
hundred and fifty men (ver. 2) who are princes 
and prominent men in the tribes, not all Le- 
vites, as may easily be inferred from such pas- 
sages as 27 : 3, where Manassites find it necessary 



to deny complicity with the sedition. Rather 
loosely joined with these, and treated in the nar- 
rative almost as a separate company, are Da- 
than and Abiram, descendants through Eliab 
of Reuben, and On, who is not again mentioned, 
also a Reubenite and a son of Peleth, perhaps 
the same as Pallu (Gen. 46 : 9) who was the father 
of Eliab (Num. 26 : 8). Thcsc Reubenites could 
be most easily bent to Korah' s purpose as their 
ancestor Reuben was the firstborn of Israel, and 
no doubt his descendants felt that his rights of 
primogeniture were being invaded. The mag- 
istracy had been assumed by Moses, and the 
priesthood, which now in the completed taber- 
nacle was assuming a dignity and glory worth 
contending for, was restricted to the tribe of 
Levi — and where did the firstborn come in? 
The rejection of Reuben, as based on Jacob's 
dying oracle (Gen. 49 : 4)^ was probably not yet 
known, or at least not acquiesced in ; and that 
oracle itself reflected the ideas of a time when 
Levi's contrasted destiny was thought of more 
as a penal denial of land inheritance (Gen. 49 : 7) 
than as a dignity or headship which Reuben 
had any reason to envy. 

These men under the leadership of Korah 
held a meeting and presented their complaint 
against Moses and Aaron. Their grievance 
was that those leaders were usurping, especially 
in the prerogatives of the temple service, a dig- 
nity which belonged to the whole congregation. 
The whole body of the people were theoretically 
Jehovah's priests (Exod. 19 : 5, 6), and that Jeho- 
vah was among them had been not only often 
asserted, but was especially emphasized in that 
outbreak of prophecy at Kibroth-Hattaawah 
(11 : 25, 26). The heart of the contention, no 
doubt, was that the function of worship ought 
to be a family matter, and that in providing an 
exclusively dedicated sanctuary and a formal 
ritual Moses and Aaron were seeking to enhance 
their own dignity and keep others down. That 
the provision of orderly worship for the whole 
nation meant taking away the right of praying 
to God from individuals and families was, no 
doubt, a misunderstanding, and the whole con- 
tention in regard to worship is strikingly like 
Miriam's contention regarding prophecy (12 : 2)^ 



Ch. XVI.] 



NUMBERS 



65 



3 And they gathered themselves together against 
Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye 
take too much upon you, seeing all the congrega- 
tion are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is 
among them : wherefore then lift ye up yourselves 
above the congregation of the Lord ? 

4 And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face : 

5 And he spake unto Korah and unto all his 
company, saying, Even to morrow the Lord will 
shew wlio are his, and who is holy ; and will cause 
him to come near unto him : even him whom he 
hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. 

6 This do ; Take you censers, Korah, and all his 
company ; 

7 And put fire therein, and put incense in them 
before the Lord to morrow : and it shall be that the 
man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy : 
ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. 

8 And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, 
ye sons of Levi : 

9 Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the 
God of Israel hath separated you from the congre- 
gation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do 
the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to 
stand before the congregation to minister unto 
them? 

10 And he hath brought thee near to him, and all 
thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek 
ye the priesthood also? 

11 For which cause both thou and all thy com- 
pany are gathered together against the Lord : and 
what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him ? 



3 renown : and they assembled themselves to- 
gether against Moses and against Aaron, and 
said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, 
seeing all the congregation are holy, every one 
of them, and the Lord is among them : where- 
fore then lift ye up yourselves above the assem- 

4 bly of the Lord ? And when Moses heard it, he 

5 fell upon his face : and he spake unto Korah 
and unto all his company, saying, In the morn- 
ing the Lord will shew who are his, and who is 
holy, and will cause him to come near unto 
him : even him whom he shall choose will he 

6 cause to come near unto him. This do ; take 

7 you censers, Korah, and all his company ; and 
put fire therein, and put incense upon them be- 
fore the Lord to-morrow : and it shall be that 
the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall 
be holy : ye take too much upon you, ye sons of 

8 Levi. And Moses said unto Korah, Hear now, 

9 ye sons of Levi : seemeth it but a small thing unto 
you, that the God of Israel hath separated you 
from the congregation of Israel, to bring you 
near to himself ; to do the service of the taber- 
nacle of the Lord, and to stand before the cou- 

10 gregation to minister unto them ; and that he 
hath brought thee near, and all thy brethren 
the sons of Levi with thee? and seek ye the 

11 priesthood also? Therefore thou and all thy 
company are gathered together against the 
Lord : and Aaron, what is he that ye murmur 



where a function which Moses had expressly- 
wished might be exercised by all (n = 29) was 
taken as monopolized by Moses. Like Miriam's 
contention too, this charge was actuated by 
envy, for if the people had been pure-hearted, 
they could have seen that by the maintenance 
of an exclusively holy sanctuary and priesthood 
for the standard public worship, no essential 
privilege was being taken from them except the 
privilege of relatively exalted position. In this 
insistence on the priestly privileges of the whole 
congregation Dathan and Abiram no doubt 
sympathized, though they were probably not 
present at the meeting (ver. 12). They were, per- 
haps, preparing to offer a minchah (ver. 15) , in- 
tended to operate to the disparagement of the 
public sacrifices, and possibly they had, along 
with Korah, set up a kind of rival tabernacle in 
their own part of the camp (see ver. 24, 27). 

In this connection it is worth while to notice 
the grammatical puzzle which occurs in the first 
verse. In the Hebrew the chapter begins. And 
took, meaning that Korah and his company 
took something, but no object of the verb is 
given, the word men in our Authorized and 
Revised versions being supplied. Various com- 
pletions of the sense have been conjecturally 
furnished; the LXX puts it, and talked; and 
some have thought the missing object of " took " 
ought to be counsel, and have pointed out that 
Korah and the Reubenites were located com- 
paratively near each other on the south side of 
the camp, so that they could easily confer with 
each other. But considering that a presumptu- 



ous offering on their part is indicated in ver. 15, 
why may not the missing object be conjectured 
to be minchah f According to this understand- 
ing, these men took an offering as their first 
overt act of rebellion and as a concrete indica- 
tion that they claimed the right to do so, and then 
assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron 
in order to justify and defend the movement. 

4-11. The first act of Moses when this charge 
of self-aggrandizement was sprung upon him was 
to throw himself upon his face, to signify, as he 
also expressly indicates in ver. 11, that the ques- 
tion is one of divine arrangement rather than 
of human ambition. But he has the penetration 
to see that Korah is not really contending for an 
open priesthood, that is to say, for the aboli- 
tion of the hierarchy, but is really challenging 
the title of Aaron to an exclusive dignity which 
he would gladly perpetuate and hold. The only 
way to decide this title is to submit the question 
to the decision of Jehovah, and the test proposed 
is the act of offering incense before Jehovah in 
competition, on the part of Korah's company 
and Aaron respectively, for the resultant signs 
of his approval. This was the act which had 
proved so disastrous to Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 
10 : i> 2), and in consenting to this test Korah 
was consistently and presumptuously standing 
by an unbelief which had asserted that the 
tenure of Aaron's priesthood was that of human 
ambition rather than of divine appointment. 

In ver. 8-11, which the critics take to belong 
to another stratum of priestly thought, Moses 
reminds Korah that as one of the favored Levites 



E 



m 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XVL 



12 And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the 
sons of Eliab : which said, We will not come up : 

13 Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us 
up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, 
to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thy- 
self altogether a prince over us? 

14 Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land 
that floweth with milk and honey, or given us in- 
heritance of fields and vineyards : wilt thou put out 
the eyes of these men? we will not come up. 

15 And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the 
Lord, Respect not thou their offering : I have not 
taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one 
of them. 

16 And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all 
thy company before the Lord, thou, and they, and 
Aaron, to morrow : 

17 And take every man his censer, and put in- 
cense in them, and bring ye before the Lord every 
man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers ; 
thou also, and Aaron, each of you his censer. 

18 And they took every man his censer, and put 
fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood 
in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation 
with Moses and Aaron. 

19 And Korah gathered all the congregation 
against them unto the door of the tabernacle of 



12 against him? And Moses sent to call Dathan 
and Abiram, the sous of Eliab : and they said, 

13 We will not cume up : is it a small thing that 
thou hast brought us up out of a land flowing 
with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilder- 
ness, but thou must needs make thyself also a 

14 prince over us ? Moreover thou hast not brought 
us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor 
given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: 
wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will 

15 not come up. And Moses was very wroth, and 
said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their offer- 
ing : I have not taken one ass from them, neither 

16 have I hurt one of them. And Moses said unto 
Korah, Be thou and all thy congregation before 
the Lord, thou, and they, and Aaron, to-morrow : 

17 and take ye every man his censer, and put in- 
cense upon them, and bring ye before the Lord 
every man his censer, two hundred and fifty 
censers; thou also, and Aaron, each his censer. 

18 And they took every man his censer, and put 
fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and 
stood at the door of the tent of meeting with 

19 Moses and Aaron. And Korah assembled all 
the congregation against them unto the door of 



he already holds special privileges by express 
divine appointment, and that really there is 
nothing more for him to seek except the priest- 
hood. He retorts in Korah's own words (see 
ver. 3) that the Levites rather than he are taking 
too much upon themselves. The impiety of 
their act is enhanced by the fact that they are 
already the objects of special divine favor, and 
this fact ought to place them in a position to see 
that it is not merely Aaron their fellow in de- 
pendence on God's will, but Jehovah himself 
whom they are resisting. 

12-15, Dathan and Abiram seem to have 
remained in their tents nursing their discontent 
in a more sullen, and withal more secular way. 
It appears from ver. 15 that these men had 
done the most of overt and defiant exercising of 
priestly functions as laymen, while Korah only 
laid claim as a pretext to the right which they 
went on and assumed. Invited by Moses to the 
conference and test at the tent of meeting, they 
refused to come up, alleging as their reason a 
dissatisfaction with Moses' chimerical schemes 
and domineering methods (ver. is) and a distrust 
of his specious ways of covering up his failures 
(ver. 14). He had not kept his promise of bring- 
ing them to a land of plenty and he was now 
seeking to divert their attention from the real 
"seriousness of the situation. By the expression, 
wilt thou put, or bore, out the eyes of 
these men? (ver. i4) they perhaps meant to 
hint that by getting Korah and his company up 
to the tent of meeting where he was at home 
with his thaumaturgical methods and appli- 
ances, he would succeed in blinding them, or, 
throwing dust in their eyes — to translate into our 
familiar idiom — so that these dupes would be 



persuaded that there was nothing wrong. For 
their own part they were going to keep out of 
the range of his subtleties. 

The charge that he was attempting to ** play 
the lord" over them (ver. is) made Moses very 
angry for, conscious of his own meekness 
(12: 3) J he felt keenly its injustice. He could 
profess before God that he had never practised 
any of the arts of the despot either in the way 
of extortion or injury (ver. i5). Moreover there 
was apparent some great preparation for a spec- 
tacular sacrifice which, if it were to succeed, 
would operate greatly to the detriment of the 
dignity and influence of the sanctuary. Moses 
fervently prayed that this impious offering 
might elicit no signs of the divine approval. 
Just as a contentious and rebellious claim to the 
right of prophesying is visited with the pun- 
ishment of leprosy (chap. 12)^ so the presenting 
of a meal offering in a manner and spirit sub- 
versive of authority could safely be accorded 
only rejection ; though in neither case is it 
necessarily implied that no one may speak in 
God's name or approach him with gifts except 
those duly constituted by forms of investiture. 

16-35. Moses repeats in detail the directions, 
given in ver. 6, 7, for a conference of the parties 
concerned, the two hundred and fifty men repre- 
senting the ideal right of all the people to offer 
incense, Korah representing the right of the 
Levites to discharge the highest priestly func- 
tions, and Aaron alone on the other side as the 
representative of the divinely constituted priest- 
hood. The directions are carried out, Korah 
taking pains to assemble the whole congrega- 
tion to witness the great trial (ver. 19). Up to 
this point there is no express mention of divine 



Ch. XVL] 



NUMBERS 



67 



the congregation : and the glory of the Lord ap- 
peared unto all the congregation. 

20 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 
Aaron, saying, 

21 Separate yourselves from among this congre- 
gation, that I may consume them in a moment. 

22 And they fell upon their faces, and said, O 
God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one 
man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the con- 
gregation ? 

23 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

24 Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you 
up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, 
and Abiram. 

2o And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and 
Abiram ; and the elders of Israel followed him. 

26 And ne spake unto the congregation, saying. 
Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked 
men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be con- 
sumed in all their sins. 

27 So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, 
Dathan, and Abiram, on every side : and Dathan 
pud Abiram came out, and stood in the door of 
their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and 
their little children. 

28 And Moses said. Hereby ye shall know that 
the Lord hath sent me to do all these works ; for / 
have not done them of mine own mind. 

29 If these men die the common death of all men, 
or if they be visited after the visitation of all men ; 
then the Lord hath not sent me. 

30 But if the Lord make a new thing, and the 
earth open her mouth, and .swallow them up, with 
all that appertain unto them, and they go down 
quick into the pit ; then ye shall understand that 
these men have provoked the Lord. 

31 And it came to pass, as he had made an end 
of speaking all these words, that the ground clave 
asunder that was under them : 



the tent of meeting : and the glory of the Lord 
appeared unto all the congregation. 

20 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 

21 Aaron, saying. Separate yourselves from among 
this congregation, that I may consume them in 

22 a moment. And they fell upon their faces, and 
said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, 
shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with 

23 all the congregation? And the Lord spake unto 

24 Moses, saying. Speak unto the congregation, 
saying. Get you up from about the tabernacle 

25 of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses 
rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram ; 

26 and the elders of Israel followed him. And he 
spake unto the congregation, saying. Depart, I 
pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, 
and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be con- 

27 sumed in all their sins. So they gat them up 
from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and 
Abiram, on every side : and Dathan and Abiram 
came out, and stood at the door of their tents, 
and their wives, and their sons, and their little 

28 ones. And Moses said. Hereby ye shall know 
that the Lord hath sent me to do all these 
works ; for I have not done them of mine own 

29 mind. If these men die the common death of 
all men, or if they be visited after the visitation 
of all men ; then the Lord hath not sent me. 

30 But if the Lord make a new thing, and the 
ground open her mouth, and swallow them up, 
with all that appertain unto them, and they go 
down alive into the pit ; then ye shall under- 
stand that these men have despised the Lord. 

31 And it came to pass, as he made an end of 
speaking all these words, that the ground clave 



interference either by way of command or the- 
ophany, but now that tlie climax of impiety is 
reached the divine glory shines out with a lurid 
and ominous light, as on a former occasion at 
Kadesh (see i4 : lo). The warning goes forth to 
Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from 
the congregation in order to give an opportunity 
for a sudden and wholesale act of retribution 
from Jehovah (ver. 20, 21), This seems to be a 
repetition in another form of the same threat 
which has repeatedly come so near execution 
and yet has been averted by intercession (Exod. 

32 : 10, seq. ; Num. 14 : 12, seq ) . In tllis CaSC MoseS 

and Aaron prostrate themselves in entreaty and 
remonstrance against involving the great, 
thoughtless multitude in the punishment of the 

few (ver. 22). 

In ver. 24 and 27 the word translated taber- 
nacle is a word that is never used in prose of 
any structure except the sanctuary of Jehovah. 
This fact has led some critics to conjecture that 
the original form may have been " tabernacle of 
Jehovah," as in 17 : 13. It seems to me not im- 
possible that this peculiar term, used as it is in 
the singular of a structure belonging in common 
to the three conspirators, may have "been em- 
ployed to denote some sort of rival sanctuary 
which these men had set up as the focus or meet- 
ing-point of their sacerdotal pretensions. 



The narration now leaves the company whose 
contention was especially about the exclusive 
priesthood of Aaron, and takes up the conten- 
tion and punishment of those who disputed the 
divine legation of Moses. Accompanied by the 
elders of Israel Moses went to Dathan and Abi- 
ram, warning the congregation to keep away 
from their tents lest they be involved in their 
sin and ruin. Finding themselves the objects 
of such a formal visitation and of such general 
avoidance, Dathan and Abiram with all their 
families came and stood at their tent doors to 
await the end. Solemnly and confidently Moses 
proposed the test whereby Jehovah's mind 
should be known, and yet at the same time the 
retribution should be so manifestly divine as to 
exonerate Moses from the charge of procuring 
it himself. He thus forestalled the charge which 
was nevertheless carelessly made the next day 
(see ver. 41). Regarding his own divine commis- 
sion, Moses was willing to be vindicated by an 
act of Jehovah which should be like a new 
creation in its uniqueness and in the power in- 
volved (ver. 30). Moscs is iiot usually given to 
talking very much in definite prediction of what 
Jehovah is going to do, but in this case his own 
prescience as a prophet needed to be vindicated, 
as well as his enjoyment of the divine protec- 
tion. In fulfillment of his words the earth 



68 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XVI. 



32 And the earth opened her mouth, and swal- 
lowed them up. and their houses, and all the men 
that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. 

o3 They, and all that appertaintd to them, went 
down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon 
them : and they perished from among the congre- 
gation. 

34 And all Israel that were round about them fled 
at the cry of them : for they said, Lest the eartli 
swallow us up aho. 

35 And there came out a fire from the Lord, and 
consumed the two hundred and fifty men that 
offered incense. 

36 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

37 Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, 
that he take up the censei-s out of the burning, and 
scatter thou the fire yonder ; for they are hallowed. 

38 The censers of these sinners against their own 
souls, let them make them broad plates for a cov- 
ering of the altar ; for they oiiered them before the 
Lord, therefore they are hallowed : and they shall 
be a sign unto the children of Israel. 

39 And Eleazar the priest took the brasen censers, 
wherewith they that were burnt had ofTered ; and 
they were made broad plates for a covering of the 
altar: 

40 To be a memorial unto the children of Israel, 
that no stranger, which /^^ not of the seed of Aaron, 
come near to otler incense before the Lord ; that he 
be not as Korah. and a-s his company : as the Lord 
said to him by the hand of Muses. 

41 But on the morrow ail the congregation of the 
children of Israel murmured against Moses and 
against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people 
of the Lord. 

42 And it came to pass, when the congregation 
was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, 
that they looked toward the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation : and, behold, the cloud covered it, and 
the glory of the L->rd appeared. 

43 And Moses and Aaron came before the taber- 
nacle of the congregation. 



32 asunder that was under them : and the earth 
opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, 
and their households, and all the men that ap- 

33 pertained unto Korah, and all their goods. So 
they, and all that appertained to them, went 
down alive into the pit : and the earth closed 
upon them, and they perished from among the 

34 assembly. And all Israel that were round about 
them fied at the cry of them : for they said, Lest 

35 the earth swallow' us up. And fire came forth 
from the Lord, and devoured the two hundred 
and fifty men that oSered the incense. 

36 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

37 Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, 
tuat he take up the censers out of the burning, 
and ^L•atter thou the fire yonder ; for they are 

33 holy ; even the ceusere of these sinners against 
their own lives, and let them be made beaten 
plates for a covering of the altar : for they 
offered them before the Lord, therefore they are 
holy : and they shall be a sign unto the "chil- 

39 dreh of Israel' And Eleazar the priest took 
the brasen censers, which they that were burnt 
had offered : and they beat them out for a cov- 

40 ering of the altar: to be a memorial unto the 
children of Israel, to the end that no stranger, 
which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to 
burn incense before the Lord ; that he be not as 
Korah, and as his company : as the Lord spake 
tmto him by the hand of Moses. 

41 But on the morrow all the congregation of the 
children of Israel murmured against Moses and 
against Aaron, saying. Ye have killed the peo- 

42 pie of the Lord. And it came to pass, when the 
congregation w as assembled against Moses and 
against Aaron, that they looked toward the tent 
of meeting : and. behold, the cloud covered it, 

43 and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses 
and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meet- 



opened and swallowed up the whole rebellious 
company in that part of the camp ^vith their 
households. These are desciibed as the men 
that appertained unto Korah (ver. 32)^ 
though we have the express statement (26 : n) 
that the children of Korah died not ; and as for 
Korah himself it is not clear whether he was 
involved in this destruction by earthquake or 
whether he perished by fire among those that 
offered the incense at the tent of meeting. In 
punishment of the two hundred and fifty who 
were in contention with Aaron, the consuming 
fire of the sanctuary manifested the self-avenging 
holiness of Jehovah's altar (^er. 35), as in the 
case of Xadab and Abihu (Lev. lo : i, 2). 

36-40. The censers and the coals which had 
been so immediately and awfully associated with 
a direct act of divine retribution were too sacred 
ever to be employed for common purposes. 
Eleazar, who was not so strictly interdicted as 
the high priest himself from going among the 
dead (see Lev. 21 : i-€), was directed to scatter the 
fire with which they had kindled their incense 
afar ofi" (^er. 37), and to make the censers into 
beaten plates to cover the altar. These plates 
would thus remain as a reminder that no one 
not of the seed of Aaron was to bum incense 



before Jehovah ( ^er. 40) . The line between priests 
and Levites was thus definitely drawn. As for 
the further test as to which was the priestly 
tribe, this was furnished by the events narrated 
in the next chapter. The latter part of ver. 40 
seems to place Korah among those who perished 
at the sanctuary. 

41-50. By the next day the people were some- 
what recovered from the terror (^er. u) inspired 
by the earthquake, and their resentment fixed 
itself on Moses and Aaron as the authors of the 
calamity of the day before. Such an inveterate 
eagerness to believe Moses and Aaron in the 
wrong, as well as the rash willingness of two 
hundred and fifty men to follow Korah as a 
leader into the most awful danger, shows how 
formidable and widely representative of the na- 
tion's dissatisfaction was Korah's conspiracy. 
They assembled at the door of the tent of meet- 
ing, on the very ground that had just been 
cleared of the corpses of those who had sinned 
against their own souls, lives (^er. ssj, and 
charged the devoted brothers with murdering 
the people of the Lord. Again the ominous 
cloud and glory gathered about the sanctuary 
and attracted their shuddering attention (-^er. 42). 
Again the voice of Jehovah bade Moses leave 



Ch. XVII.] 



NUMBEKS 



69 



44 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

45 Get you up from among this congregation, that 
I may consume them as in a moment. And they 
fell upon their faces. 

46 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, 
and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on 
incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, 
and make an atonement for them : for there is 
wrath gone out from the Lord ; the plague is 
begun. 

47 And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and 
ran into the midst of the congregation ; and, be- 
hold, the plague was begun among the people : 
and he put on incense, and made an atonement 
for the people. 

48 And he stood between the dead and the living; 
and the plague was stayed. 

49 Now they that died in the plague were four- 
teen thousand and seven hundred, beside them 
that died about the matter of Korali. 

50 And Aaron returned unto Moses unto the door 
of the tabernacle of the congregation : and the 
plague was stayed. 



44 ing. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

45 Get you up from among this congregation, that 
I may consume them in a moment. And they 

46 fell upon their faces. And Moses said unto 
Aaron, Take thy censer, and put fire therein 
from off the altar, and lay incense thereon, and 
carry it quickly unto the congregation, and 
make atonement for them : for there is wrath 
gone out from the Lord ; the plague is begun. 

47 And Aaron took as Moses spake, and ran into 
the midst of the assembly; and, behold, the 
plague was begun among the people : and he 
put on the incense, and made atonement for 

48 the people. And he stood between the dead 
and the living ; and the plague was stayed. 

49 Now they that died by the plague were fourteen 
thousand and seven hundred, besides them that 

50 died about the matter of Korah. And Aarun 
returned unto Moses unto the door of the tent 
of meeting : and the plague was stayed. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of 
every one of them a rod according to the house of 
their fathers, of all their princes according to the 
house of their fathers twelve rods : write thou every 
man's name upon his rod. 

3 And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the 
rod of Levi : for one rod shall he for the head of th.e 
house of their fathers. 

4 And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle 
of the congregation before the testimony, where I 
will meet with you. 

5 And it shall come to pass, that the man's rod, 
whom I shall choose, shall blossom : and I will make 
to cease from me the murmurings of the children of 
Israel, whereby they murmur against you. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of 
them rods, one for each fathers' house, of all 
their princes according to their fathers' houses, 
twelve rods : write thou every man's name upon 

3 his rod. And thou shalt write Aaron's name 
upon the rod of Levi : for there shall be one rod 

4 for each head of their fathers' houses. And 
thou shalt lay them up in the tent of meeting 
before the testimony, where I meet with you. 

5 And it shall come to pass, that the man whom I 
shall choose, his rod shall bud : and I will make 
to cease from me the murmurings of the chil- 
dren of Israel, which they murmur against you. 



him free to destroy the people in a moment; 
and again Moses and Aaron prostrated them- 
selves in the act of intercessiion (ver. 45). By 
some intuition which enabled him to follow the 
movements of the divine wrath Moses knew 
that the plague had broken out among the peo- 
ple; and he bade Aaron make haste and em- 
ploy that priestly censer which had been exalted 
the day before by an act of destruction in sup- 
plicating the divine power to save (ver. 46). Thus 
the rationale of the high priesthood was more 
amply and normally manifested in saving its 
very despisers than by its power to repel prof- 
anation. While the plague raged with fatal 
effect Aaron stood as it were between dead and 
living until his intercession finally stayed its 
ravages, but not until fourteen thousand and 
seven hundred people had been fatally stricken. 



Chap, 17. Confirmation of the priestly 

PREROGATIVES OF THE TRIBE OF LEVI. Now 

that the rebellion is quelled, the real question at 
issue can be decided in a more declarative and 
instructive way. During the tumult of passion 
the voice of the teacher is hushed ; the only 
thing to which power can then address itself is 
the restoration of order. The utmost which the 



dreadful example made of Korah' s company 
could teach was the negative truth, of which 
remembrance was constantly made in the beaten 
plates of the altar (16 : 40), "that no stranger, 
which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to 
burn incense before the Lord." The positive 
attestation of Jehovah's choice of Levi, or 
Aaron, is now exhibited through a miracle in 
his express behalf. 

1-11. Moses was directed to take of each of the 
princes or heads of the tribes a rod inscribed 
with the name of the possessor, making twelve 
rods. It seems probable that Ephraim and 
Manasseh were counted as two tribes, so that 
there were twelve exclusive of Levi, Aaron's 
being an additional rod, as the Vulgate under- 
stands it. This was the reckoning which was 
characteristic of P (see 1 : 10, 32, 34, etc.), though 
the counting of Joseph as one tribe was not un- 
known (Dent. 27 : 12). Aaron was considered the 
prince or head of the house of Levi. These 
rods were to be laid up in the tent of meeting, 
before the testimony, i. e., the tables of stone, 
which was Jehovah's chosen place to be com- 
municated with (ver. 4 ; comp. Exod. 30 : 36), and there 
Jehovah would work a miracle of growth which 
would assuage the murmurings of the children 



70 



NUMBEES 



[Ch. XVIII. 



6 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, 
and every one of their princes gave him a rod 
apiece, lor each prince one, according to their 
fathers' houses, even twelve rods : and the rod of 
Aaron was among their rods. 

7 And Moses laid up the rod before the Lord in 
the tabernacle of witness. 

8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses 
went into the tabernacle of witness ; and, behold, 
the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, 
and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and 
yielded almonds. 

9 And Moses brought out all the rods from before 
the Lord unto all the children of Israel : and they 
looked, and took every man his rod. 

10 And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's 
rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a 
token against the rebels ; and thou shalt quite take 
away their murmurings from me, that they die not. 

11 And Moses did so: as the Lord commanded 
him, so did he. 

12 And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, 
saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish. 

13 Whosoever cometh anything near unto the 
tabernacle of the Lord shall die : shall we be con- 
sumed with dying? 



6 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, 
and all their princes gave him rods, for each 
prince one, according to their fathers' houses, 
even twelve rods : and the rod of Aaron was 

7 among their rods. And Moses laid up the rods 
before the Lord in the tent of the testimony. 

8 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses 
went into the tent of the testimony ; and, be- 
hold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi 
was budded, and put forth buds, and bloomed 

9 blossoms, and bare ripe almonds. And Moses 
brought out all the rods from before the Lord 
vmto all the children of Israel : and they looked, 

10 and took every man his rod. And the Lord said 
unto Moses, Put back the rod of Aaron before 
the testimony, to be kept for a token against 
the children of rebellion; that thou mayest 
make an end of their murmurings against me, 

11 that they die not. Thus did Moses : as the Lord 
commanded him, so did he. 

12 And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, 
saying, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we 

13 are all undone. Every one that cometh near, 
that cometh near unto the tabernacle of the 
Lord, dieth : shall we perish aU of us ? 



CHAPTER XVIIT. 



1 AND the Lord said unto Aaron, Thou and thy 
sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear 
the iniquity of the sanctuary : and thou and thy 
sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your 
priesthood. 

2 And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the 
tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they 
may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee : 



1 AND the Lord said unto Aaron, Thou and thy 
sons and thy fathers' house with thee shall bear 
the iniquity of the sanctuary : and thou and thy 
sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your 

2 priesthood. And thy brethren also, the tribe of 
Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou near 
with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, 



of Israel. Moses did according to directions, 
and the next day, on going into the tent of 
testimony, he found Aaron's rod exhibiting all 
the stages of vegetation from buds to blossoms 
and ripe almonds (ver s). Thus that house was 
designated for the priesthood whose sceptre had 
life and growth in it. The rods were all brought 
out and each man was bidden identify his own 
and see for himself whose insignia exhibited 
the tokens of Jehovah's choice (ver. 9). Finally 
the burgeoned staff was laid up before the tes- 
timony along with the memorial manna (Exod. 
16 : 34) and the standard incense (Exod. so : 36), 
that it might be a permanent evidence or token 
to the "sons of rebellion" (ver. lo), calculated 
to silence controversy and prevent the fatal 
consequences of sedition. 

12, 13. These two verses, which are translated 
better in the Revised version, appear to express 
more naturally the feelings of the people after 
the dreadful events of chap. 16 than after the 
miracle that has just been recounted. They 
form indeed a natural transition from this whole 
episode of judgment and separation to the legis- 
lation of the next chapter, and may well be 
read in close connection with 18 : 1, 



Chap. 18. Duties, relative position, 

AND REVENUES OF THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES. 

l-7» The regulations of this chapter revert to the 



preceding chapters as their occasion, especially 
in ver. 3, 5, where they are said to be intended to 
prevent Levites from fatally intruding on the 
priests' duties, and in ver. 22, where the Levites 
themselves appear as safeguards against the pro- 
voking of the divine wrath on the part of the 
people. This first section simply defines the 
priests' and the Levites' relative position and 
duties. It is addressed to Aaron, sometimes as 
head of the tribe of Levi , sometimes as the chief 
priest. He with his sons and his father's house 
(ver. 1), t. e., all the tribe, are to be responsible 
for the sanctuary in general ; while he and his 
sons are to occupy the narrower circle of the 
priesthood. Of these respective spheres of duty 
the incumbents are said to bear the iniquity, 
meaning that for whatever fault there is in the 
performance or the defense of these sacred func- 
tions they are to be responsible. That the 
sanctuaiy itself and its most sacred performances 
incurred defilement was recognized in the an- 
nual act of atonement (see Lev. le : i6, is) ; and 
that the consecrated body of men should recog- 
nize in their weighty responsibilities a certain 
burden of "iniquity," would follow from the 
principle that those assuming the holiest duties 
and characters are the most sensitive to short- 
coming (see on chap. 6 : 13.21), 

As for the Levites, these were to be joined 
(ver. 2) to Aaron, and to act as his subordinates, 



Ch. XVIII.] 



NUMBEKS 



71 



but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister be- 
fore the tabernacle of witness. 

3 And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge 
of all the tabernacle : only they shall not come 
nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, 
that neither they, nor ye also, die. 

4 And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep 
the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, 
for all the service of the tabernacle : and a stranger 
shall not come nigh unto you. 

5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, 
and the charge of the altar : that there be no wrath 
anv more upon the children of Israel. 

6 And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the 
Levites from among the children of Israel : to you 
they are given as a gift for the Lord, to do the serv- 
ice of the tabernacle of the congregation. 

7 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall 
keep your priest's office for every thing of the altar, 
and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have 
given your priest's office unto you as a service of 
gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be 
put to death. 

8 And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also 
have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings 
of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel ; 
unto thee have I given them by reason of the anoint- 
ing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever. 

9 This shall be thine of the most holy things, 
reserved from the fire : every oblation of theirs, 
every meat offering of theirs, and every sin offer- 
ing of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, 
which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy 
for thee and for thy sons. 

10 In the most holy place shalt thou eat it ; every 
male shall eat it : it shall be holy unto thee. 

11 And this is thine ; the heave offering of their 
gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of 
Israel : I have given them unto thee, and to thy 
sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute 
for ever : every one that is clean in thy house shall 
eat of it. 



and minister unto thee : but thou and thy sons 
with thee shall be before the tent of the testi- 

3 mony. And they shall keep thy charge, and the 
charge of all the Tent : only they shall not come 
nigh unto the vessels of the sanctuary and unto 
the altar, that they die not, neither they, nor ye. 

4 And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep 
the charge of the tent of meeting, for all the 
service of the Tent : and a stranger shall not 

5 come nigh unto you. And ye shall keep the 
charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the 
altar: that there be wrath no more upon the 

6 children of Israel. And I, behold, I have taken 
your brethren the Levites from among the chil- 
dren of Israel : to you they are a gift, given unto 
the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meet- 

7 ing. And thou and thy sons with thee shall keep 
your priesthood for every thing of the altar, and 
for that within the veil ; and ye shall serve : I 
give you the priesthood as a service of gift : and 
the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to 
death. 

8 And the Lord spake unto Aaron, And I, be- 
hold, I have given thee the charge of mine 
heave offerings, even all the hallowed things of 
the children of Israel, unto thee have I given 
them by reason of the anointing, and to thy 

9 sons, as a due for ever. This shall be thine of 
the most holy things, reserved from the fire : 
every oblation of theirs, even every meal offer- 
ing of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, 
and every guilt offering of theirs, which they 
shall render unto me, shall be most holy for 

10 thee and for thy sons. As the most holy things 
shalt thou eat thereof: every male shall eat 

11 thereof ; it shall be holy unto thee. And this is 
thine ; the heave offering of their gift, even all 
the wave offerings of the children of Israel : I 
have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and 
to thy daughters with thee, as a due for ever: 
every one that is clean in thy house shall eat 



their charge being the tent ; while to the vessels 
of the sanctuary and to the altar (ver. 3), and to 
all that is within the veil (ver. 7) the priests alone 
had the right of admission and contact. The 
word "joined" is a play upon the name Levi, 
which means joined, the writer thus indicating 
that Levi exemplified the meaning of his name 
in being joined to the priesthood, as well as in 
the circumstance which led his mother first to 
give it to him (see Gen. 29 : 34). The Levites are 
further described as a gift given U''!ir\), nethu- 
nim, to Jehovah (ver. 6), as more fully explained 
in 3 : 5-10 ; and the priesthood is described as a 
" service of gift " (ver. 7)^ i, e., perhaps a dignity 
derived from Jehovah by direct bestowal, and 
not a right which any one might claim or seize. 
The word stranger in ver. 4 means one not of 
the tribe of Levi, while in ver. 7 it means one 
not of the seed of Aaron, in either ease meaning 
an alien in relation to the particular privileged 
class under consideration at the time. 

8-19, We have in this section an account of 
the revenues especially devoted to the priests. 
Like the first section it is addressed specifically 
to Aaron (ver, 8). Aaron and his sons have the 
charge, or guardianship, of Jehovah's niD^I'iri, 
t'rumoth, or offerings which the children of Israel 



elevate in token of consecration. The Avord is used 
in its widest sense, as in 5 : 9 ; Lev. 22 : 12 ; and 
the priests have the strongest motive for seeing 
that these offerings are faithfully rendered to 
Jehovah, namely, their own interest as direct 
beneficiaries. These are given them by reason 
of the anointing (ver. s), or perhaps /or an 

anointing portion (see the same word in Exod. 29 : 29) ^ 

and confirmed to them as an ordinance for 

ever, of eternity. Five different kinds of offer- 
ings are enumerated in detail: (1) The "most 
holy things from the fire," i. e., all oblations, 
such as the meal offerings, sin offerings, guilt 
offerings, of which only the "memorial" was 
burned. The burnt offering is not enumerated, 
because that was entirely consumed, and only 
the skin went to the priest. These were most 
sacredly reserved for Aaron and the male mem- 
bers of his family, who were to eat them in a 

holy place (ver. lO ; cf. Lev. 7 : 6). (2) "The 

nnnr^, t'rumah, of their gift," i. e., the wave 
breast and the heave thigh of the peace offer- 
ings, as specified in Lev. 7 : 28-34. Of this all 
who were ceremonially clean belonging to the 
priest's household might eat, whether sons or 
daughters, or even servants born in the house or 
bought with his money (ver. ii ; cf. Lev, 22:11). 



72 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XVIII. 



12 All the best of the oil, and all the best of the 
wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them 
which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have 1 
given thee'. 

13 And whatsoever Is first ripe in the land, which 
they shall bring unto the Lord, shall be thine ; every 
one' that is clean in thine house shall eat of it. 

14 Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine. 

15 Every thing that opeueth the matrix in all 
flesh, wtu'oh they bring unto the Lord, uhether it he 
of men or beasts, shall be thine : nevertheless the 
firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the 
firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. 

16 And those that are to be redeemed from a 
month old shalt thou redeem^, aceording to thine 
estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the 
shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. 

17 But the firstling of a cow. or the firstling of a 
sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not 
redeem ; they are holy : thou shalt sprinkle their 
blood upon the altar, 'aud shalt bum their fat for 
an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto 
the Lord. 

18 And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the 
wave breast and as the right shoulder are thine. 

19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, 
which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, 
have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters 
wiih thee, by a starute for ever : it is a covenant of 
salt for ever before the Lord unto thee and to thy 
seed with rhee. 

20 And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt 
have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt 
thou have any part among them -.lam thy part and 
thine inheritance among the children of Israel. 

21 And. behold. I have given the children of Levi 
all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their 
service which they serve, eren the service of the 
tabernacle of the congregation. 

22 >» either must the children of Israel henceforth 
come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest 
they bear sin, and die. 



12 thereof. All the test c: the oil. and all the best 
o: the Tlnrage. and c: the ccm. the f rsthruits of 
them whijh they give unto the Lord, to thee 

13 have I given tncm. The hrstrine iruits c: ■all 
that is in tneir land, which they bring unto the 
Lord, shall be thine ; every one' that is clean in 

14 thy house shall eat thereof. Every thing devoted 

15 in Israel shall be thine. Every thing that open- 
eth the womb, of all flesh which they offer unto 
the Lord, both of man and beast, shall be thine : 
neverthele^ the firstborn of -man shalt thou 
surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean 

16 beasts shalt thou redeem. And those that are 
to be redeemed of them from a month old shalt 
thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for 
the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the 

17 sanctuary \xhe same is twenty gerahs). But the 
furstUng of an ox, or the firstling of a sheep, or 
the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem ; 
they are holy : thou shalt sprinkle their blood 
U3K)n the altar, and shalt bum their fat for an 
offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto 

18 the Lord. And the flesh of them shall be thine, 
as the wave breast and as the right thigh, it 

19 shall be thine. All the heave offerings of the 
holy things, which the children of Israel offer 
unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy sons 
and thy daughters with thee, as a due for ever : 
it is a 'covenant of salt for ever before the Lord 

20 unto thee and to thy seed with thee. And the 
Lord said unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no in- 
heritance in their land, neither shalt thou hare 
any portion among them : I am thy portion and 
thine inheritance among the children of Israel. 

21 And unto the children^of Levi, behold, I have 
given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, 
in return for their service which they serve, 

22 even the service of the tent of meeting. And 
henceforth the children of Israel shall not come 
nigh the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin, and 



(3) The " far " of the oil, and of the vintage, 
and of the com. and the first firuits which are 
offered to Jehovah ('•er. 12. is: ct Lev. 23 : 20). 

(4) Everything made cherem, or put under the 
ban (t». u; see Ler. J7 : 2s). (5) " Everrthing 
that openeth the womb," i. e., all firstlings, 
whether of man or beast, which by fondamental 
principle belonged to Jehorah (lixoi i3 : 2). Of 
these the firstborn of man was invariably to be 
redeemed, and that of an unclean beast to be re- 
deemed or destroyed according to regulations 
given more in detail elsewhere (l*^- ?t : 6 ; Exod. 
13 : lo : 34 : 50 : Lev. 2T : ?7) . The firstling of Q beast 
such as is offered in sacrifice could not be re- 
deemed (-rer. 17), as its blood was to be dashed on 
the altar, and its fat as sacred was to be burned 
for an odor of pleasantness to Jehovah. The 
flesh, however, went to the priest (■^=-- i^), just 
as the wave breast and the right thigh of the 
peace offering. This was to be for Aaron and 
his sons and daughters an ordinance of eternity 
(rer. 19). designated as a *" covenant of salt," t*. e., 
a covenant carrying with it obligations as in- 
violable as those of hospitality, of which salt is 

the symbol (&r« on Lev. 2 : 13. and et S Ctaron. 13 : 5). 

20-24. This section appears to be addre^ed 
to Aaron as the head of the tribe of Levi. Yer. 20 



therefore outlines the general principle which 
applies to the whole tribe, namely, that Jehovah, 
rather than a tract of land, is his inheritance. His 
support is a sacred revenue coming from Jehovah 
himself. It is from this point of view that the 
tithes of the children of Israel are called their 
heave offering to Jehovah (t«- 24), an unusual 
designation for the secular tithe which, so far as 
we know, was not literally elevated in token of 
consecration. This principle of a divine rather 
than a landed maintenance being enunciated, 
the details of the Levites' secular support are 
given in ver. 21-24. and that of the priests in 
ver. 25-32. 

The custom of the tithe came down from patri- 
archal times (s« fen- 14 : £-:• : ri : tn] , and is made a 
legal institution in Lev. 27 : 3l^33 ; but here for 
the first the specific use or application of that 
tax is designated. The tithe of the children of 
Israel comes to the Levites as wages in return 
for the service which they serve i^'^r. ti). 
That service, here described as a service to the 
children of Israel, is so far as they are concerned 
the service of protecting them from necessary 
contact with the self-avenging sanctities of the 

tabernacle (^er- 22 : cf. 1 : 53 ; S : 19. »nd notes). Thls 

revenue being simply business wages, there is 



Ch. XIX.] 



NUMBERS 



73 



23 But the Levites shall do the service of the 
tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear 
their iniquity : it shall he a statute for ever through- 
out your generations, that among the children of 
Israel they have no inheritance. 

24 But the tithes of the children of Israel, which 
they offer as an heave offering unto the Lord, I have 
given to the Levites to inherit : therefore I have said 
unto them. Among the children of Israel they shall 
have no inheritance. 

25 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

26 Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto 
them, When ye take of the children of Israel the 
tithes which I have given you from them for your 
inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering 
of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe. 

27 And this your heave offering shall be reckoned 
unto you, as though it were the corn of the thresh- 
ingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress. 

28 Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto 
the Lord of all your tithes, which ye receive of the 
children of Israel ; and ye shall give thereof the 
Lord's heave offering to Aaron the priest. 

29 Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave 
offering of the Lord, of all the best thereof, even the 
hallowed part thereof out of it. 

30 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye 
have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall 
be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the 
threshingfloor, and as the increase of the wine- 
press. 

31 And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your 
households : for it is your reward for your service 
in the tabernacle of the congregation. 

32 And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when 
ye have heaved from it the best of it : neither shall 
ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, 
lest ye die. 



23 die. But the Levites shall do the service of the 
tent of meeting, and they shall bear their in- 
iquity : it shall be a statute for ever throughout 
your generations, and among the children of 

24 Israel they shall have no inheritance. For the 
tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer 
as an heave offering unto the Lord, I have given 
to the Levites for an inheritance : therefore I 
have said unto them. Among the children of 
Israel they shall have no inheritance. 

25 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

26 Moreover thou shalt speak unto the Levites, 
and say unto them. When ye take of the chil- 
dren of Israel the tithe which I have given you 
from them for your inheritance, then ye shall 
offer up an heave offering of it for the Lord, a 

27 tithe of the tithe. And your heave offering 
shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were 
the corn of the threshing-floor, and as the ful- 

28 ness of the winepress. Thus ye also shall offer 
an heave offering unto the Lord of all your 
tithes, which ye receive of the children of Is- 
rael ; and thereof ye shall give the Lord's heave 

29 offering to Aaron the priest. Out of all your 
gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the 
Lord, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed 

30 part thereof out of it. Therefore thou shalt say 
unto them, When ye heave the best thereof from 
it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as 
the increase of the threshing-floor, and as the 

31 increase of the winepress. And ye shall eat it 
in every place, ye and your households : for it is 
your reward in return for your service in the 

32 tent of meeting. And ye shall bear no sin by 
reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the 
best thereof : and ye shall not profane the holy 
things of the children of Israel, that ye die not. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 
Aaron, saying, 



CHAPTER XIX. 

1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses and unto 



no restriction as to when and where it shall be 
eaten as in the case of the holy things over which 
special jurisdiction is claimed. 

25-32. Jehovah now addresses Moses (ver. 25 ), 
as the Levites are to be instructed concerning an 
obligation which Aaron is not competent to en- 
force. Observe that while the Levites are the 
subordinates or assistants of Aaron (ver. 2) they 
are not his employees. They receive their support 
from the people (ver. 21 )j and Aaron is therefore 
their beneficiary rather than their paymaster. 
The principle laid down in this section is, that 
when the tithe has once come into possession of 
the Levites it is as much theirs to be accounted for 
and taxed in its turn as if it were their produce 
from the ground (ver. 27), Of this tithe they are 
to take a tenth as their heave offering to Jeho- 
vah (ver. 26), and this shall go the priest. This 
tenth must be of the best, constituting indeed 
the holy part of their gifts (ver. 29). It is not 
until this holy part has been taken that the re- 
mainder has really become their own, or secular 
wages (ver. 31) J so that they can eat it wherever 
they choose without fear of "profaning the 
holy things of the children of Israel," and so 
incurring risk of death (ver. 32). 



Chap. 19. The water of purification ; 
ITS PREPARATION AND USE. With the pecu- 
liar characteristics of Jewish religious feeling, 
which centered the integrity of the spiritual 
life in the shunning of contagion from without 
(see Commentary on Leviticus, remarks at the 
beginning of chap. 11), the providing of a water 
of purification Avas a logical, one might almost 
say an inevitable, outgroAvth of the desire to 
make religion available for the emergencies of 
common life. This water was a kind of porta- 
ble preparation in which were concentrated the 
ceremonially cleansing virtues of the sin offer- 
ing. It could be applied without the interven- 
tion of the priest, and at a distance from the 
sanctuary. Just as, when baptism is held to be 
of vital importance for the salvation of the soul, 
ecclesiastical regulations permit this rite to be 
performed by laymen in cases of emergency, so 
when entire ceremonial cleanness can alone fit 
the person for the congregation of Jehovah, 
there is provision made for the restoration of 
that cleanness without the presence of the 
priest. The most common source of accidental 
defilement would be by the dead ; and if this 
chapter may be taken as having any special 



74 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XIX. 



2 This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord 
hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children 
of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without 
spot, wherein is no blemish, and ujwn which never 
came yoke : 

3 And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, 
that he may bring her forth without the camp, and 
one shall slay her before his face : 

4 And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood 
with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly 
before the tabernacle of the congregation seven 
times : 

5 And one shall burn the heifer in his sight ; her 
skin, and her flesh, and her blood, Avith her dung, 
shall he burn : 

6 And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hys- 
sop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the 
burning of the heifer. 

7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he 
shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he 
shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be 
unclean until the even. 

8 And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes 
in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be 
unclean until the even. 

9 And a man tliat is clean shall gather up the 
ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the 
camp in a clean place, and 'it shall be kept for the 
congregation of the children of Israel for a water 
of separation : it k« a purification for sin. 

10 And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer 
shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the 
even : and it shall be unto the children of Israel, 
and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, 
for a statute for ever. 

11 He that toucheth the dead body of any man 
shall be unclean seven days. 



2 Aaron, saying, This is the statute of the law 
which the Lord hath commanded, saying. Speak 
unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee 
a red heifer without spot, wherein is'no blemish, 

3 and upon which never came yoke : and ye shall 
give her unto Eleazar the priest, and lie shall 
bring her forth without the camp, and one shall 

4 slay her before his face : and Eleazar the priest 
shall take of her blood with his finger, and 
sprinkle of her blood toward the front of the 

5 tent of meeting seven times : and one shall 
burn the heifer in his sight ; her skin, and her 
flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he 

6 burn : and the priest shall take cedar wood, and 
hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of 

7 the burning of the heifer. Then the priest shall 
wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh 
in water, and afterward he shall come into the 
camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the 

8 even. And he that burneth her shall wash his 
clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, 

9 and shall be unclean until the even. And a 
man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of 
the heifer, and lay them up without the camp 
in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the 
congregation of the children of Israel for a 

10 water of separation : it is a sin offering. And 
he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall 
wash his clothes, and be unclean until the 
even : and it shall be unto the children of Is- 
rael, and unto the stranger that sojourneth 

11 among them, for a statute for ever. He that 
toucheth the dead body of any man shall be un- 



conneetion with the time and events, the occur- 
rence of so many deaths by the plague (le : 49)^ 
and the needs of those who engaged in the task 
of burial, would suggest the necessity of some 
such legislation. The use of purifying waters 
was not uncommon in ancient religions. The 
red heifer, with its rites so redolent of chemico- 
ethical suggestion, was a fascinating subject to 
the Oriental mind, so that the title " The Heifer " 
is given to a whole Sura of the Koran. 

1-10. This ordinance is called the ordi- 
nance, statute, of the law (ver. 2), a form of 
expression which occurs in only one other place 
(31 : 21), where this same law of purification from 
the dead is enforced and amplified. Addressed 
to Moses and Aaron (ver. 1), it simply prescribes 
in detail the preparation of a Tvater of sepa- 
ration, or, impurity (ver. 9)^ for the cleansing 
of those who have been defiled by the dead. 
The children of Israel are to bring to the priest 
a red heifer which is perfect, without spot, and 
on which no yoke was ever imposed (ver. 2). It 
will be remembered that the kine by which the 
Philistines sent back the ark into Judea were 
also to be such as had never borne a yoke (1 Sam. 
6 : '). This heifer is to be delivered to Eleazar 
the priest, the one who was chosen to take up 
the censers from the burning (16 : 37), as the task 
which at every step left the operator defiled 
could not be imposed on the high priest. The 



victim is to be slain without the camp, under 
Eleazar's personal inspection (ver. s)^ and he is 
to sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven 
times toward the front of the tent of meeting 
(ver. 4). In the later times of the Jewish people 
the heifer was slain on the Mount of Olives in 
full view of the east gate of the temple. After 
slaughtering, the animal is burned entire under 
the eye of the priest (ver. 5)^ while he personally 
casts into the fire cedar wood and hyssop and 
scarlet, the substances used in connection with 
the cleansing of the leper (Lev. li : 4, e). As 
both the priest (ver. 7) and the one who does the 
burning (ver. s) are rendered unclean by their 
respective shares of the work, the final task of 
gathering the ashes and storing them in a clean 
place has to be i)erformed by a third person, 
ceremonially untainted (ver. 9)^ who in his turn 
is rendered unclean and has to undergo the same 
ablutions as his predecessors (ver. 10). The sym- 
bolism of the red color, of the unblemished and 
untainted condition of the beast, and of the 
cedar and scarlet and hyssop are not explained 
and can only be conjectured. A certain mys- 
tery, however, always attaches to the insisting 
on conditions and the concocting of ingredients 
the uses of which are not obvious. This sacri- 
fice is designated, so far as its efficacy is con- 
cerned, as a sin offering (ver. 9) ; and it is pre- 
scribed as a perpetual ordinance. 



Ch. XX.] 



NUMBEKS 



75 



12 He shall purify himself with it on the third 
day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean : 
but if he purify not himself the third day, then the 
seventh day he shall not be clean. 

13 Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man 
that is dead, and purilieth not himself, defileth the 
tabernacle of the Lord ; and that soul shall be cut 
off from Israel : because the water of separation 
was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean ; 
his uncleanness is yet upon him. 

14 This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: 
all that come into the tent, and all that is in the 
tent, shall be unclean seven days. 

15 And every open vessel, which hath no cover- 
ing bound upon it, is unclean. 

16 And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with 
a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a 
bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven 
days. 

17 And for an unclean person th'^y shall take of 
the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, 
and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel : 

18 And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip 
it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and 
upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that 
were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or 
oue slain, or one dead, or a grave : 

19 And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the 
unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day : 
and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, 
and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, 
and shall be clean at even. 

20 But the man that shall be unclean, and shall 
not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from 
among the congregation, because he hath defiled 
the sanctuary of the Lord : the water of separation 
hath not been sprinkled upon him ; he is unclean. 

21 And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, 
that he that sprinkleth the water of separation 
shall wash his clothes ; and he that toucheth the 
water of separation shall be unclean until even. 

22 And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth 
shall be unclean ; and the soul that toucheth it 
shall be unclean until even. 



12 clean seven days : the same shall purify himself 
therewith on the third day, and on the seventh 
day he shall be clean : but if he purify not him- 
self the third day, then the seventh day he shall 

13 not be clean. Whosoever toucheth the dead 
body of any man that is dead, and puritieth not 
himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord ; 
and that soul shall be cut off from Israel : be- 
cause the water of separation was not sprinkled 
upon him, he shall be unclean ; his uuclean- 

14 ness is yet upon him. This is the law when a 
man dieth in a tent: every oue that cometh 
into the tent, and every oue that is in the tent, 

15 shall be unclean seven days. And every open 
vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, 

16 is unclean. And whosoever in the open held 
toucheth one that is slain with a sword, or a 
dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall 

17 be unclean seven days. And for the unclean 
they shall take of the ashes of the burning of 
the sin offering, and running water shall be put 

18 thereto in a vessel : and a clean person shall 
take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprin- 
kle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, 
and upon the persons that were there, and upon 
him that touched the bone, or the slain, or the 

19 dead, or the grave : and the clean person shall 
sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and 
on the seventh day : and on the seventh day he 
shall purify him ; and he shall wash his clothes, 
and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean 

20 at even. But the man that shall be unclean, 
and shall not purity himself, that soul shall be 
cut off from the midst of the assembly, because 
he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord : the 
water of separation hath not been sprinkled 

21 upon him ; he is unclean. And it shall be a 
perpetual statute unto them : and he that sprin- 
kleth the water of separation shall wash his 
clothes; and he that toucheth the water of 

22 separation shall be unclean until even. And 
whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall 
be unclean ; and the soul that toucheth it shall 
be unclean until even. 



11-22. Though this substance prepared from 
the ashes of the red heifer is called a " water of 
separation" (ver. 9) it is not until ver. 17 that 
the direction to add water to the ashes is dis- 
tinctly given ; and it seems more likely that the 
purifying specific was preserved in the form of 
ashes than in the form of lye, and that running 
or "living" water was added to it as it was 
needed. The general law for the one w^ho 
touches the dead is that he is unclean and that 
seven days is the least period that will restore 
him. On the third day and on the seventh day 
he is to purify himself with the water of separa- 
tion, after which he is clean. Neglect of the 
first or third-day application, however, hinders 
the final eflicacy of the process (ver. 12) ; and 
entire neglect of the law entails the cutting off 
of the delinquent from the congregation (ver. 13). 
The disregard of these precautions in respect to 
uncleanness from the dead is said to " defile the 
tabernacle of Jehovah," a sort of implied identi- 
fication of the temple of God with the human 
body of which we see traces in early Christian 
feeling (John 2 -. 19, 21 ; 1 cor. 6 : 19, 20). In ver. 14- 
17 specific cases of defilement requiring the use 
of the water of separation are given, A death 



in a tent renders every one in it, and every sub- 
sequent visitor while the body is there, unclean 
for seven days (ver. u). Every open vessel 
which has not a cover tied on (lit., "a cover, a 
string ") is also rendered unclean (ver. 15). Those 
in the open air who come in contact with a slain 
man, or a corpse, or a bone, or a grave are also 
rendered unclean (ver. le). The application of 
the water is more particularly described in ver. 
17, seq., we being furnished not only with the 
information that the ashes are to be treated with 
living water (ver. 17), but also that the patients 
are to be sprinkled by some clean person (ver. is), 
instead of by themselves as might have been in- 
ferred from ver. 12 ; and that the administrator 
(ver. 19, 21) J or indeed whoever touches the water 
or the unclean person (ver. 22), shall incur a 
defilement lasting until the evening. 



Chap. 30. Death of Miriam. The 

WATERS OF STRIFE. REFUSAL OF A PASSAGE 
THROUGH EDOM. DeATH OF AaRON AT 

Mount Hor. 1. Perhaps it would be of small 
profit to tlie general reader to undertake to 
identify and delimit the passages in this and 
the following chapter Avhich arc described by 



76 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XX. 



CHAPTEE XX. 



1 THEN came the children of Israel, even the 
whole congregation, into the desert of Ziu in the 
first month : and the people abode in Kadesh ; and 
Miriam died there, and was buried there. 

2 And there was no water for the congregation : 
and they gathered themselves together against 
Moses and against Aaron. 

3 And the people chode with Moses, and spake, 
saying. Would God that we had died when our 
brethren died before the Lord ! 



1 AND the children of Israel, even the whole 
congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin 
in the first month : and the people abode in 
Kadesh ; and Miriam died there, and was buried 

2 there. And tliere was no water for the congre- 
gation : and they assembled themselves together 

3 against Moses and against Aaron. And the peo- 
ple strove with Moses, and spake, saying, Would 
God that we had died when our brethren died 



the critics as compiled from P and from JE, or 
E alone, respectively. It is enough to say that 
the section appears to be compiled from various 
sources rather than struck out at a heat by a 
single author. Certainly Moses, if he were 
writing the sustained account as we have it, 
would have made his chronology clearer than to 
bring his congregation abruptly into Kadesh in 
the first month (ver. i)^ without mentioning 
the year, after having given, as his last note of 
time, the second year, and the second month, 
and the twentieth day of the month (lo : ii), the 
date at which the cloud was lifted from the 
tabernacle for the removal from Sinai. See R. 
F. Horton, "Inspiration and the Bible," pp. 
186, 187. 

The year of this assembling is perhaps the 
fortieth year of the wandering, as it seems to be 
in close connection with this event that the peo- 
ple move on to Mount Hor (see ver. 22) where 
Aaron dies ; and this occurred in the fortieth 
year after the children of Israel came out of 
Egypt (see 33 : 38). Of this loug wandering, dur- 
ing which the whole generation was wasting 
away, we have no history except the account of 
the dispute about the priesthood (chap, le, 17) 
which may have occurred in the earlier part of 
it. The people were sentenced to the nomadic 
life by being commanded to take the Red Sea 
road (14 : 25), which is the modern Hajj route 
far to the south of Kadesh, leading to the head 
of the gulf of 'Akabah. It is probable that the 
congregation, who were sentenced to be shep- 
herds in the wilderness (see u : 33), were scat- 
tered throughout the wadies of the peninsula 
where they could find pasturage for their cattle. 
That cattle in large numbers could be main- 
tained in those valleys at that epoch is indis- 
putable, for the Bedouin keep large flocks and 
herds in those regions at the present day. The 
nucleus of the camp would be the sanctuary 
and the camp of Moses and the Levites ; and 
the names of the camping-places given in 33 : 
19-35 designate probably the places where the 
tabernacle rested. From this list of places, 
most of which are unknown, it appears that the 



farthest point south and east reached by the 
tabernacle was Ezion-geber (33:35; cf. Judg. 11 : 
16) at the head of the eastern arm of the Red 
Sea. Various temporary or partial convenings 
of the people may have occurred at times dur- 
ing the wandering, as is perhaps indicated by 
the names TMrlllT), Q'helathah, assembling (33 : 
22) and, Pi'h'np'O, Maq' heloth, assemblies (iWd., 
25) among the camping- places, but this verse at 
the beginning of the twentieth chapter relates 
the assembling of the whole congregation at 
Kadesh preparatory to resuming their journey 
as a unified host. All the working up of the 
movement, the firing of decadent ardor, the 
organizing of bands, the busy movement to and 
fro of messengers, the search for remote groups 
hid among the hills, which must have gone to 
make this assembling in the fortieth year possi- 
ble, we can only imagine. 

At this place and time Miriam dies, that re- 
markable woman who forty years since was so 
revered by the people that the whole camp tar- 
ried a week on its journey while she was ex- 
cluded from the camp on her recovery from her 

leprosy (12 : 15; see comment on whole chapter), 

2-13. And there was no Avater (ver. 2). 
Perhaps an unusual drought at the time, together 
with the unwonted demand occasioned by such a 
multitude coming so suddenly into the neigh- 
borhood with all their flocks and herds, pro- 
duced a shortage of water to drink. The con- 
gregation, Avhose forty years of discipline had 
not cured them of the habit of grumbling, held 
a kind of indignation meeting against Moses 
and Aaron and gave expression to the rather 
peculiar wish that they had shared in the fate 
of the two hundred and fifty who were destroyed 
in the afl'air of Korah (ver. s; cf. 16 : 35), as if 
these were regarded as heroes who had perished 
in a noble cause. This seems to indicate that 
there was still a strong animus against the 
priesthood. Tke same P account goes on in ver. 
6 to state, in its characteristic formula for nar- 
rating crises of this kind, that Moses and Aaron 
went to the door of the tent of meeting and fell 
I o» their faces (cf- i^ •• s; le : 4, 22), and that the 



Ch. XX.] 



NUMBERS 



77 



4 And why have ye brought up the cougregatiou 
of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our 
cattle should die here? 

5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out 
of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place ? it is 
no place of seed, or of tigs, or of vines, or of pome- 
granates ; neither is there any water to drink. 

6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence 
of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of 
the congregation, and they fell upon their faces : 
and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. 

7 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly to- 
gether, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye 
unto the rock before their eyes ; and it shall give 
forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them 
water out of the rock : so thou shalt give the con- 
gregation and their beasts drink. 

9 And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, 
as he commanded him. 

10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congrega- 
tion together before the rock, and he said unto 
them. Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you 
water out of this rock? 

11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his 
rod he smote the rock twice : and the water came 
out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and 
their beasts also. 



4 before the Lord ! And why have ye brought the 
assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that 

5 we should die there, we and our cattle? And 
wherefore have ye made us to come up out of 
Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no 
place of seed, or of tigs, or of vines, or of pome- 
granates ; neither is there any water to drink. 

6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence 
of the assembly unto the door of the tent of 
meeting, and fell upon their faces : and the 

7 glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the 

8 Lord spake untoMoses, saying. Take the rod, and 
assemble the congregation, thou, and Aaron thy 
brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their 
eyes, that it give forth its water ; and tiiou shalt 
bring forth to them water out of the ruck : so 
thou shalt give the congregation and their cattle 

9 drink. And Moses took the rod from before the 

10 Lord, as he commanded him. And Moses and 
Aaron gathered the assembly together before 
the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye 
rebels ; shall we bring you forth water out of 

11 this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and 
smote the rock with his rod twice : and water 
came forth abundantly, and the congregation 



glory of Jehovah appeared to them (cf. i4 : lo ; i6 : 
19, 42). The account which is attributed to the 
JE source compares with this very much as 
Dathan and Abiram's grievance compares with 
tliat of Korah in chap. 16. The complaint is 
directed especially against Moses (ver. 3a) ^ and 
its burden is the familiar one that their leaders 
have lured the " assembly of Jehovah " out of 
Egypt with false hopes (ver. 4, 5). Indeed, the 
complaint iu ver. 4, 5 sounds a little strange 
as coming from the lips of a people who had 
had forty years to forget the land of Egypt, and 
who had not yet resumed active traveling with 
Moses in search of the Promised Land. In a 
secular writing one would suspect such a passage 
to be a somewhat inartistic bit of stock descrip- 
tion not quite clearly and consistently imagined. 
"The language of the murmurers. . . has the 
air of a traditional remonstrance handed down 
from the last generation," 

Moses is directed to take his wonder-working 

rod (ver. 8 ; cf. Exod. T : 17, 20 ; 9 : 23 ; 10 : 13 ; 14 : 16 ; 

17 : 5, 9, seq.)j which as we are here alone informed 
(ver. 9) was kept laid up before Jehovah, and 
along with Aaron to assemble the congregation 
and speak to the rock, or cliff, in their presence, 
and thus bring forth water for the people and 
their cattle. The same rod had been employed 
on a similar occasion at Rephidim (Exod. 17 : 5-7), 
and there by divine direction Moses had used it 
to smite the rock. Here, on the other hand, the 
direction is to speak to the rock, and the reason 
why Moses should take the trouble to fetch the 
rod from its resting-place is not obvious. Per- 
haps the mere inattention to detail involved in 
striking with the rod instead of holding it idly 



in his hand was not counted an important part 
of the sin for which he was excluded from the 
land of promise. Certainly that failure in ex- 
actness did not block the outflow of miraculous 
power, for the water gushed forth abundantly 
at the stroke. Speak ye unto the rock (ver. 
8). The Avord is .i^'^D, sela, or cliff, instead of 
the more common word 1^]f tsur, used of the 
rock in Horeb (Exod. 17 : e). The rabbis in their 
comments or haggadoth on this passage and 21 : 
16-18 have fancied that the rock in Rephidim 
and this were the same rock, it having followed 
the children of Israel through all their forty 
years' wandering — a tradition which is evidently 
employed and spiritualized by Paul in 1 Cor. 
10 : 4. 

Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation 
before the cliff and in an imperious and self- 
sufiicient way, and evidently in some irritation, 
Moses demanded of the people, whom he char- 
acterized as murmurers or rebels; must, 
shall, we fetch you water out of this 
rock? accompanying the harsh interrogatory 
with two blows of the rod (ver. 11), For the 
spirit in which this Avas done both Moses and 
Aaron were debarred from the privilege of 
bringing the children of Israel into their land 
(ver. 12). It is only in this place that the reason 
given for the sentence is that they did not be- 
lieve in God, and even here the unbelief is not 
simply doubt, but such a neglect to fix the 
people's faith and expectation upon God as 
resulted in his not being sufficiently sanctified 
or acknowledged in the presence of the children 
of Israel. In all other places the sin of Moses 
and Aaron is characterized as rebellion, the 



78 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XX. 



12 And the Lord spaie unto Moses and Aaron, 
Because ye believed me uut, to sanetify me in the 
eyes of tiie children of Israel, tbertiore ye shall 
not bring this congregation into the land which I 
have given them. 

13 This is the water of Meribah ; because the chil- 
dren of Israel strove witb the Lord, and ne was 
sauctided in them. 

14 And Moses sent messengers from. Kadesh unto 
the king of Edom. Thus saith thy brother Israel, 
Thou kuowest all the travel that hath befallen us : 

15 How our lathers went duwu into Egypt, and 
we have dwelt in Egypt a iong time; and the 
Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers : 

16 And when we cried unto the Lord, he heard 
our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us 
forth out of £g>"pt : and, bthold, we are in Kadesh, 
a city in the lu'termost of thy border : 



12 drank, and their canle. And the Lord said 
unto Moses and Aaron. Because ye believed not 
in me, to sauctiry me in the eyes of the children 
of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this as- 
sembly into the land' which I have given them. 

13 These are the waters of Meribah ; because the 
children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he 
was sanctified in them. 

14 And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto 
the king of Edom. Thus saith thy brother Israel, 
Thou kuowt^t all the travail that hath befallen 

15 us : how our fathers went down into Egypt, and 
we dwelt in Eg>-pt a long time ; and the £gyi>- 

16 tians evil entreated us, and our fathers : and 
when we cried unto the Loid, he heard our 
voice, and sent an angel, and brought us forth 
out of Egypt : and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a 



verb used in most cases being from the same 
root as the word "rebels" in ver. 10. They 
"rebelled against Jehovah's word," or, mouth 
(to-. 24 ; 2T : 14) ; they " trespassed against him and 
sanctified him not in the midst of the children 
of Israel" (oeut. 32 : 51) ; they " were rebellions 
against his spirit and Moses spake tmadvisedly 
with his lips " ( ps. loe : 33 ) . Evidently the speak- 
ing to the congregation as if Moses and Aaron 
were the independent providers for their wants, 
and as if they were to be the supreme authors of 
the miracle — a sort of invasion of the divine 
prerogative — was accounted as the center of 
their sin. At the same time, according to Mo- 
ses* review- of the transaction in Deuteronomy, 
it was on the people's account as much as on his 
that he was debarred from the Promised Land 
(Dent. 1 : 3- : 3 : 26 ; 4 : 21) . It secms vcry probable 
that if Moses and Aaron, after all that Gcd 
had wrought through them and after this con- 
spicnons slight of Jehovah's majesty, had gone 
on and made a triumphal entry into Canaan, 
they would on their death have gone perilously 
near becoming the objects of such a hero worship 
on the part of the x)€ople as would have threat- 
ened the integrity of their allegiance to Jehovah. 
This danger, and not a mere petty jealousy on 
Jehovah's part of a mortal, would be a legiti- 
mate reason for the sentence of failure. As Mo- 
ses' predominant characteristic was meekness 
(12 : 3), so his great life-failure resulted from a 
manifestation of the very opposite trait, or tm- 
due self-exaltation. It was mitural that the 
sentence of Jehovah should thtis come home to 
his conscience, for it is through what we have 
in onr own conscience that the Spirit convinces 
ns of sin. Moses felt condemned for lacking in 
the virtue which to him was most important. 
So Jesus, whose supreme virtue was self-sacri- 
fice, saw the temptation, which he most energet- 
ically repelled, in the suggestion to be lacking 
in that unreserving devotion (see ustt. is : 23). 
The name given to the place (^er. 13) is derived 



from the people's contention with Jehovah 
rather than from the sin of Moses and Aaron. 
The final result of this contention was that the 
impression of Jehovah's holine^ was greatly 
enhancetl. This repeated mention of the making 
holy, or sanctifying, of Jehovah (C?-"1-p, q-d-sh; 
see ver. 12, 13) may possibly contain an allusion 
to the name Kadesh, the holy place, where if 
anywhere Jeh vah ought to be sanctified. This 
M eri bah is sometimes called Meribah of Kadesh 
(2; : 14 : D^at. 32 : 51) to distiugtiish it from the place 
of the former similar nuracle which was also 
sometimes called "' Meribah" («« Exod, 17 : 7). 

14-21. Preparations were now set on foot for 
the final march and the invasion of the Promised 
Land. Instead of going directly from Kadesh into 
Canaan by the Negeb as was formerly planned 
(13 : IT, seq.)j the projcct was to go in a north- 
easterly direction through the territory of Edom, 
around the southern end of the Dead Sea and 
through the country of Moab, thtis entering the 
land from the east by crossing the Jordan. 
"The first move was up along the nattiral 
boundary line of Canaan, from Kadesh-bamea, 
through the wilderness of Zin, to the boundary 
hinge of Jebel Madurah on the plains of Mose- 
rah, the jtinction of wadies Mnrrah and Madu- 
rah" (H. C. Tkumbuxl, "Kadesh-barnea"). 
As the proposed route was to lie through Edom, 
3Io«e« sent messengers from Kadesh 
nnto the kins of £dom — for we learn from 
Gen. 36 : 31-43 that there was a whole line of kings 
in Edom before the monarchy was established 
in Israel — asking in diplomatic fashion for a 
passage through his territory. Eeminding him 
that the nations were brothers (^er. 14), he r^ 
counted briefly the history of Israel's vicissi- 
tudes since the two ancestors had parted in 
peace centuries before (G«n- » : le, 17), skillfolly 
implying that the nation's enterprise of going to 
Canaan was deserving of encouragement since it 
was manifestly furthered by divine and even mi- 
ractdous help (^er. le) . According to the message 



Ch. XX.] 



NUMBERS 



79 



17 Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country : 
we will not pass through the tields, or through the 
vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of 
the wells : we will go by the king's high way, we 
will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until 
we have passed thy borders. 

18 And Edom said unto him. Thou shalt not pass 
by me lest I come out against thee with the sword. 

19 And the children of Israel said unto hnn, We 
will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle 
drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will 
only, without doing any thing elae, go through on 
my feet. , , , . , 

20 And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And 
Edom came out against him with much people, 
and with a strong hand. 

21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage 
through his border: wherefore Israel turned away 

from him. . ^, u ^ 

22 And the children of Israel, even the whole 
congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, and came 
unto mount Hor. 



17 city in the uttermost of thy border : let us pass, 
I pray thee, through thy land : we will not pass 
through held or through vineyard, neither will 
we drink of the water of the wells: we will go 
along tile king's high way, we will not turn 
aside to the right hand nor to the left, until we 

18 have passed thy border. And Edom said unto 
him. Thou shalt not pass through me, lest I 

19 come out with the sword against thee. And 
the children of Israel said unto him. We will go 
up by the high way : and if we drink of thy 
water, I and my cattle, tiien will I give the 
price thereof: let me only, without doing any 

20 thing else, pass through on my feet. And he 
said, Thou shalt not pass through. And Edom 
came out against him with much people, and 

21 with a strong hand. Thus Edom refused to g:ive 
Israel passage through his border: wherefore 
Israel turned away from him. 

22 And they journeyed from Kadesh : and the 
children of Israel, even the whole congregation. 



of Jephthah in Judg. 11 : 17, a similar request 
was sent to the king of Moab. Moses' request was 
a moderate one, simply that the host might go 
through without disturbing farm or vineyard or 
drinking water from the wells, but keeping to 
the king's . . . way, or main, raised thorough- 
fare (ver. 17), without turning aside to right or 
left. Such military roads, or main thorough- 
fares, are still called in Oriental countries Derb 
es-Sultan, or " way of the emperor." But that 
such an immense host should go through the 
country without causing any loss or damage was 
perhaps more than even Moses could legiti- 
mately guarantee. " We can easily understand 
the objection of the king of Edom. Many of 
the defiles through which the main road wound 
were not adapted for the march of a great mul- 
titude. The Israelites could scarcely have gone 
through Edom without injuring the fields and 
vineyards, and though the undertaking was 
given in good faith by Moses, how could he an- 
swer for the whole of that undisciplined host he 
was leading toward Canaan? The safety of 
Edom lay in denying to other peoples access to 
its strongholds. The difficulty of approaching 
them was their main security. Israel might go 
quietly through the land now, but its armies 
might soon return with hostile intent. Water 
too, was very precious in some parts of Edom. 
Enough was stored in the rainy season to sup- 
ply the wants of the inhabitants ; beyond that 
there was none to spare, and for this necessary 
of life money was no equivalent. A multitude 
traveling with cattle would have made scarcity 
or famine — might have left the region almost 
desolate. With the information they had, Mo- 
ses and Joshua may have believed that there 
were no insuperable difficulties. Yet the best 
generalship might have been unequal to the 
task of controlling Israel in the passes and 



among the cultivated fields of that singular 
country" ( WATSON ). The king of Edom, 
therefore, firmly refused the Israelites passage, 
even though they offered to pay for the water 
they drank (ver. i9), and came out against them 
with a military force (ver. 20). According to 
Moses' account in Deuteronomy (oeut. 2 : 4-8), it 
was their conviction that Mount Seir was di- 
vinely allotted to the children of Esau, which 
prevented the Israelites from attempting a 
forcible invasion. 

32-29. The main point in this section, not 
plain from the text itself, is the location of 
mount Hor. The word " Hor" means moun- 
tain, and the Hebrew form in this place is 
mountain, the moimtain, a name which is also 
applied to Mount Hermon in 34 : 7, 8. Tradition 
identifies this mountain with Jebel Neby Harun, 
"mountain of the prophet Aaron," near Petra, 
on the east side of the Arabah, or low valley 
extending from the Dead Sea to the gulf of 
'Akabah. This mountain is crowned with a 
rude, domed structure purporting to be the tomb 
of Aaron. But this location does not fit in with 
the text, and "it was not until the days of Jo- 
sephus, fifteen centuries after Aaron's death, 
that the mountains near Petra were thought to 
be the place of this funeral. . . Is it likely that 
after Israel had asked permission to enter Edom 
and been met with a refusal, they would march 
into the very heart of the country, camp close 
to its capital, and then bury Aaron in the 
mountain close by?" (Heney A. Harper, 
"The Bible and Modern Discoveries.") The 
mountain where Aaron was buried is more 
probably the remarkable isolated peak known 
as Jebel Madurah, thirty or forty miles north- 
east of Kadesh, where the two wadies divide 
to go down into the Arabah. " On that isolated 
and remarkable mountain, at the very border- 



80 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXI. 



23 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron 
in mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, 
saying, 

24 Aaron shall be gathered unto his people : for 
he shall not enter into the land which I liave given 
unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled 
against my word at the water of Meribah. 

25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring 
them up unto mount Hor: 

26 And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them 
upon Eleazar his sou : and Aaron shall be gathered 
uiUij his people, and shall die there. 

27 And Moses did as the Lord commanded : and 
they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the 
congregatiuii. 

28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, 
and puc them upon Eleazar his son ; and Aaron 
died tliere in the top of the mount : and Moses and 
Eleazar came down from the mount. 

29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron 
was dead, thej' mourned for Aaron thirty days, even 
all the house of Israel. 



23 came unto mount Hor. And the Lord spake 
uuto Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by the 

24 border of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron shall 
be gathered unto his people : for he shall not 
enter into the land which I have given unto the 
children of Israel, because ye rebelled against 

25 my word at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron 
and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto 

26 mount Hor : and strip Aaron of his garments, 
and put them upon Eleazar his son : and Aaron 
shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die 

27 there. And Moses did as the Lord commanded : 
and they went up into mount Hor in the sight 

28 of all the congregation. And Moses stripped 
Aaron of his garments, and put them upon 
Eleazar his son ; and Aaron died there in the 
top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came 

29 down from the mount. And when all the con- 
gregation saw that Aaron was dead, thev wept 
for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of 
Israel. 



CHAPTEE XXI 



1 AND luhen king Arad the Canaanite, which 
dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by 
the way of the spies ; then he fought against Israel, 
and took some of them prisoners. 



AND the Canaanite, the king of Arad, which 
dwelt in the South, heard tell that Israel came 
by the way of Atharim ; and he fought against 



line of the Land of Promise and yet outside of 
it, Aaron died and was buried ; and before that 
mountain, on the borders of Edom yet not 
within Edom's line, the people mourned for 
thirty days over the loss of their faithful high 
priest" (Tetjmbijll). The encampment of the 
children of Israel during the faneral and the 
thirty days of mourning was perhaps in the 
plain of Moserah (33 : so, 3i), the place where, 
according to the remarkable insertion in Deut. 
10 : 6, the death of Aaron took place. It was 
probably while the messengers were on their 
way to the king of Edom, and before their re- 
turn with his answer, that the events of this 
section occurred. 

The solemn intimation came to Moses and 
Aaron from Jehovah, apparently after the 
people had reached the vicinity of the moun- 
tain (ver. 23), that Aaron must be gathered 
unto his people, and the guilt of that rebel- 
lious missing of the divine Spirit at Meribah 
was impressed upon them as the theocratic 
cause of his doom (ver. 23. 24). The directions to 
Moses were to take Aaron and Eleazar his son 
up on the mountain and, after solemnly strip- 
ping the aged priest of his official garments, to 
invest the son, now a man well beyond the 

flower of his age (cf. Exod. 28 : 1 ; Nam. 3 : 2. 32), with 

those insignia of the high-priestly office (^er. 26), 
This command was carried out by Moses, and 
in due course there followed the peaceful death 
of the great priest on that lonely peak in sight 
of the hills of Judah (ver. 28), and the people on 
their discovery of the fact observed a mourning 
period of thirty days (ver. 29). 



Chap. 21. Fkom mount Hor to the 
STEPPES OF MoAB. 1-3. King Arad the 

Canaanite, rather, the Canaanite, the king of 
Arad, E. V. Arad appears to have been a dis- 
trict in the Negeb, or southern part of Canaan, in 
the territory afterward belonging to Judah (Judg. 
1 : 16 ; Josh. 12 : 14). By the Way of the spies. 
The obscure word, □"''^.riN, 'atharim, here trans- 
lated spies, is taken as a proper name in the E. V. 
" There really seems no justification for its ren- 
dering as 'spies.' 'Tracks' or 'monuments' 
(indicating a way marked or 'blazed' by sig- 
nal-cairns, after a manner still common in that 
region), would be justified from the Chaldaic 
'athar, * a place ' or * track.' " What Avay is 
meant we have not the data for knowing. Per- 
haps the Canaanitish king was alarmed lest the 
Israelites should invade his country by the most 
direct way from Kadesh, the way by which the 
spies had entered the Negeb forty years before. 
It seems likely that while the children of Israel 
were encamped at the foot of Mount Hor the 
messengers returned from their embassy to the 
king of Edom with the intelligence that no 
passage would be afforded through his land 
(20 : 18, seq.). go they tumcd back from their 
proposed route, which would have led directly 
from the foot of Jebel Madurah down into and 
across the Arabah, to retrace their steps west- 
ward and southward and so regain the Eed Sea 
road (ver. 4). "As the Israelites turned back at 
this time, the Canaanitish king of Arad came 
against them and struck at them, probably at 
their rear as they were moving off, ' and took 
some of them prisoners.' " It was just when the 



Ch. XXI] 



NUMBEBS 



81 



2 And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord, and 
said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into 
my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. 

3 And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, 
and delivered up the Canaanites ; and they utterly 
destroyed them and their cities : and he called the 
name of the place Hormah. 

4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the 
way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom : 
and the soul of the people was much discouraged 
because of the way. 

5 And the people spake against God, and against 
Moses, Whei-efore have ye brought us up out of 
Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no 
bread, neither is there any water; and our soul 
loatheth this light bread. 

6 And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the 
people, and they bit the people ; and much people 
of Israel died. 

7 Therefore the people came to Hoses, and said. 
We have sinned, for we have spoken against the 
Lord, and against thee ; pray unto the Lord, that 
he take away the serpents from us. And Moses 
prayed for the people. 

8 And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a 
fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole : and it shall 
come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when 
he looketh upon it, shall live. 



2 Israel, and took some of them captive. And 
Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If 
thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my 
hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. 

3 And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, 
and delivered up the Canaanites ; and they ut- 
terly destroyed them and their cities : and the 
name of the place was called Hormah. 

4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the 
way to the Red Sea, to compass the land of 
Edom : and the soul of the people was much 

5 discouraged because of the way. And the peo- 
ple spake against God, and against Moses, 
Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt 
to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, 
and there is no water; and our soul loatheth 

6 this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery ser- 
pents among the people, and they bit the peo- 

7 pie ; and much people of Israel died. And the 
people came to Moses, and said. We have sinned, 
because we have spoken against the Lord, and 
against thee ; pray unto the Lord, that he take 
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed 

8 for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, 
Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a 
standard : and it shall come to pass, that every 
one that is bitten, when he seeth it, shall live. 



Israelites were smarting under the disappoint- 
ment of not being permitted to go through 
Edom, and were apparently retreating, that this 
little king struck his spiteful and unexpected 
blow and carried off some of their brethren. 
Unable to undertake a campaign against him 
at this time, the children of Israel contented 
themselves with making a solemn vow to Jeho- 
vah that if these people should ever fall into 
their power they would accord them the ex- 
treme treatment of putting their cities under 
the ban (ver. 2). For the ban, see Lev. 27, 28, 
seq. It is human nature to be especially resent- 
ful against interferers who wantonly put added 
calamities on those who are having bad luck 

(cf. Ps. 137 : 7; Obad. 10, seq.). The aCCOUnt of the 

Canaanites' defeat (ver. 3) is here inserted by 
anticipation, like 14 : 37, 38. The actual con- 
quest and banning occurred long afterward. 
As Dillmann remarks, if this fulfillment of the 
vow had been canied out under Moses, the 
Israelites must necessarily have gained a com- 
plete victory over the king of Arad which 
would have removed all hindrance to their in- 
vading the Promised Land from the south. The 
account of the fulfillment of the vow is given 
in Judg. 1 : 17. From that passage we learn 
that the chief city of the king of Arad which, 
from the circumstance of the banning, was 
called Hormah (from D'^^, cherem, the ban, cf. 
on 14 : 45) was previously called Zephath. 

4-9. Al "^he children of Israel were not per- 
mitted to go through the land of Edom, they were 
obliged to go around it, and cross the Arabah to 
its east side far to the south of Edom, near the 
head of the gulf of 'Akabah (cf. neut. 2:8). As the 



way led down into that hot, barren valley, the 
burning and shifting sands and the gravel and 
detritus of granite which in that region make 
travel so difficult, were a great source of dis- 
couragement. Food and water were scarce, and 
the manna to which the people were more 
closely than ever restricted became very dis- 
tasteful (cf. 11 : 6). Moreover, that region was 
infested with serpents, described as burning ser- 
pents, perhaps on account of the inflammation 
and intense thirst caused by their bite, or on 
account of their fiery, metallic appearance, or 
perhaps for both reasons. There are still to be 
found in that part of Arabia and the Arabah 
many fiery colored, venomous snakes which are 
much dreaded by the Arabs. The bite of these 
reptiles proved fatal to many of the incautious 
Israelites ; and it is a significant mark of the 
chastened spirit of this generation, as com- 
pared with the rebellious disposition of former 
years, that the people came to Moses appar- 
ently of their own accord and penitently ac- 
counted for these bites as divine visitations in 
punishment of their rebellious words against 
God and against Moses (cf. ver. 5). They asked 
Moses to entreat Jehovah that the serpents 
might be called off from their mission of retri- 
bution. As Moses interceded in behalf of the 
people, the intimation came to him from Jeho- 
vah, not that this peril incident to the wilder- 
ness journey would be removed, but that while 
the danger from the deadly reptiles remained as 
besetting as ever, Moses was to make a ^"J^, sar- 
aph, or " fiery serpent," and elevate it on a pole 
or standard, and that for any bitten culprit who 
should look at this image of his tormentor the 



F 



82 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXI. 



9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it 
upon a pole, and it came to pass, ttiat if a serpent 
liad bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent 
of brass, he lived. 



9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it 
upon the standard : and it came to pass, that if 
a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked 



bite would not be fatal (ver. 8). Moses made the 
image out of brass and set it on the standard, 
and it was found that if any one on being bitten 
looked attentively at the serpent of brass he es- 
caped the deadly effect of the poison (ver. 9). 
This introduction into the religious life of the 
Israelites of what at first sight looks like a bit 
of fetichism, was so noteworthy an event in the 
history of religion that it was used by our 
Saviour as a type or illustration of his own 
spiritual effect on the life of the world (see John 

3 : U, 15). 

The resemblance of the brazen serpent, at 
least in its religious aspect, to the manifestation 
of the Son of Man must be sought in its psychi- 
cal or spiritual power for the people of its time 
rather than its mere outward features. The fea- 
tures of similarity between a healing serpent 
lifted up on a pole and the dying Saviour lifted 
up on the cross are easily observed, and with 
sufiicient ingenuity and the employment of doc- 
trinal as well as visible analogies they may be 
drawn out to great fineness in many and inter- 
esting ways. But these are resemblances that 
suggest themselves to us who have the saving 
and inspiring fulfilment to read the symbol by. 
To the people in the wilderness, on the con- 
trary, this serpent was not a symbol ; there was 
no impulse to look away from or beyond it for 
its hidden meaning ; it simply prevented death 
when they looked at it. It is to be remembered 
that no historic Christ had come to throw 
light on this piece of brass for them ; they did 
not have the second term of the comparison 
which alone could make an analogy intelligible 
or possible. In short, they were not saved by 
an analogy or type ; they were saved by a 
brazen serpent. The analogy of this serpent 
with Christ was not therefore an analogy exist- 
ing in the people's minds — not a doctrinal anal- 
ogy which could be fruitful only as it was ex- 
pounded and understood — but a similarity of 
mental or spiritual effects on the people in the 
wilderness and on those of Christendom re- 
spectively such as could be secured without doc- 
trinal explanation. The historical inquiry is : 
What did the unspeculative people who looked 
at a brass serpent and were healed receive for 
the religious life which was commensurable 
with what those receive who simply and unspec- 
ulatively believe in Christ ? 

That this unspeculative benefiting was spirit- 



ual and not merely fetichistic is evident from the 
after history of the image. When the people in 
later times were found to have made the brazen 
serpent into a fetich, i. e., an object containing 
mysterious divine power in itself, it was stig- 
matized as a "piece of brass" and destroyed 
( 2 Kings 18 : 4) . The author of the Wisdom of Solo- 
mon calls it a "symbol of salvation," only he 
makes it a reminder, as a symbol, of the com- 
mandment of the law, and says that he who 
turned to it was not saved because of the thing 
seen, but because of God the Saviour of all (Wis- 
dom 16 : 5-7) . That the use of the serpent image 
here was prompted by the heathen veneration of 
the serpent as the divinity of wisdom and heal- 
ing, such as we see shadowed in the emblem of 
Esculapius and Hygeia, is an impossible suppo- 
sition, as this would detach it in idea entirely 
from the deadly creatures which were the occa- 
sion of the expedient. Its employment points 
to a way of looking at sin and death which is 
connected somehow with faith in Christ, and 
each theologian's way of drawing out the anal- 
ogy will no doubt be influenced by his theory 
of our Saviour's atonement for sin. Not un- 
unworthy of notice is the danger that in ex- 
pounding the efficacy of the cross in its essential 
resemblance to the power of the serpent in the 
wilderness the atonement itself may be made 
fetichistic through laying too great emphasis on 
its inscrutable and arbitrary connection with 
the sin for which it is the appointed specific. 
While not attributing an incredible degree of 
spiritual discernment to the bitten Israelite, we 
cannot but feel that somehow he idealized sin 
and its penalty, death, in the act of being healed. 
Lange thus contrasts the idea of death and sin 
of which this was the starting-point with the 
pagan idea: "Heathenism proclaims its delu- 
sion in two words : sin is merely an ill, an en- 
durable fate, but the ill itself is the real peculiar 
harm, far worse than the sin. Christendom, on 
the contrary, in its truth proclaims : sin is the 
intolerable injury, but the ill result, its conse- 
quence, is also its remedy. Thus in the cross, or 
even in death, in the communion in death with 
Christ, is salvation." This much of resem- 
blance in spiritual effect between type and anti- 
type we may perhaps discern without an undue 
excursion into the realms of fancy: The ser- 
pent's victim felt himself dying ; and in that 
moment of intense experience so full of helpless- 



Ch.XXL] 



NUMBERS 



83 



10 And the children of Israel set forward, and 
pitched in Oboth. 

11 And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched 
at Ije-abarim, in the wilderness which is before 
Moab, toward the suurising. 

12 From thence they removed, and pitched in the 
valley of Zared. 

13 From thence they removed, and pitched on 
the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness 
that Cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites : for 
Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and 
the Amorites. 

14 Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of 
the Lord, What he did in the Red sea, and in the 
brooks of Arnon, 

15 And at the stream of the brooks that goeth 
down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the 
border of Moab. 



10 unto the serpent of brass, he lived. And the 
children of Israel journeyed, and pitched in 

11 Oboth. And they journeyed from Oboth, and 
pitched at lye-abarim, in the wilderness which 

12 is before Moab, toward the sunrising. From 
thence they journeyed, and pitched in the val- 

13 ley of Zered. From thence they journeyed, and 
pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in 
the wilderness, that cometh out of the border 
of the Amorites : for Arnon is the border of 

14 Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. Where- 
fore it is said in the book of the Wars of the 
Lord, 

Vaheb in Suphah, 

And the valleys of Arnon, 

15 And the slope of the valleys 

That inclineth toward the dwelling of Ar, 
And leaneth upon the border of Moab. 



ness and penitence and fear, he looked away 
from himself to the divinely ordained image, and 
through that upward glance perceived his death 
messenger so idealized and exalted that the very 
perception and wonder set up a reactionary 
movement sufficient to counteract the burning 
poison. The identification of his penalty and 
his healing was not only a fancy but a personal 
consciousness. So in regard to the great fulfill- 
ment on the cross : whatever theories we may 
attempt from the computed standpoint of the 
divine intention, it remains a great world-fact 
from the standpoint of the human consciousness 
that Christianity has so idealized the death on 
the cross as through faith to identify that death 
with the believer's own, and so secure his peace 
with God and the birth of the new man in his 
inner life. 

10-20. Between Mount Hor and Oboth (ver. lo) 
the itinerary in chap. 33 inserts the two stations 
Zalmonah and Punon (33 : 4i, 42 )j which are 
perhaps camping stations in that part of the 
wilderness where the plague of the serpents 
occurred. Ije-abarim (ver. 11) ^ or. Ruins of 
Abarim, so called in distinction from the lim, 
or ruins in Judah (Josh. 15 : 29)^ is described 
as over against Moab toward the sun-rising. 
The children of Israel have now rounded the 
south end of the Arabah at Ezion-geber, and 
are skirting its eastern side among the moun- 
tains of Abarim, or mountains of the " Further 
Regions," which form a less precipitous side of 
the valley of the Arabah than the mountains on 
the west side of that deep depression. It is 
somewhere here that we may locate the command 
in Deuteronomy (oeut. 2 : 3) "Ye have com- 
passed this mountain (i. e., Seir, cf. ver. 4) long 
enough: turn you northward." They are still 
in the vicinity of Mount Seir, or the territory of 
Edom which extends on both sides of the Ara- 
bah, and they seem to be enjoined to avoid in- 
vading the nations in all this vicinity. It ap- 
pears that they are going around Moab on its 



eastern side (cf. Judg. 11 : is), and the injunction to 
"vex not Moab " (oeut. 2 : 9) is inserted by the 
Samaritan Pentateuch immediately after ver. 
11. A little farther along a similar injunction 
is laid upon the people against any collision 
with the children of Ammon (neut. 2 : 19, inserted 
by Sam. after ver. 12). The valley of Zered 
(ver. 12), which is coujccturally identified with 
the modern Wady Kerak, called in its upper 
courses Wady 'Ain Franjy, was the first west- 
ward flowing brook which crossed their line 
of march, and the moment of passing this 
ravine is made in the Moses discourse in 
Deuteronomy to mark the end of the wilder- 
ness wandering, the whole period from the time 
of the sentence to the crossing of the ravine be- 
ing placed at thirty-eight years (oeut. 2 : 14). In 
their next move they came to the Arnon (ver. 
13), the present Wady Mojib, a narrow but very 
deep ravine running across the whole country 
of Moab. This ravine divides into several 
branches farther up the plateau, all of them 
precipitous and forming a very difficult frontier. 
These branches are indicated by the plural 
"valleys of Arnon," in the fragment of the old 
song (ver. 14). It was to the upper courses of the 
Arnon that the Israelites came. That they 
camped on the other side does not mean that 
they crossed it ; the account is written from the 
standpoint of Western Palestine, and the other, 
or further side means the south side. Before 
the children of Israel venture to cross this ravine, 
which is the frontier beyond which the fighting 
is to commence, they send their messengers to 
Sihon (ver. 21). 

At this point the writer inserts (ver. 14, 15) a 
fragment of a song taken from a collection other- 
wise unknown called the " Book of the Wars of 
Jehovah" — perhaps the earliest verbatim cita- 
tion from written documents or anthologies, as 
distinguished from oral song or legend. The 
old collection very likely contained songs, espe- 
cially folk-songs, taken from the heroic times of 



84 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXI. 



16 And from thence they went to Beer : that is the 
well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather 
the people together, and I will give them water. 

17 Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well ; 
sing ye unto it : 

18 The princes digged the well, the nobles of the 
people digged it, by the direction oj the lawgiver, 
with their staves. And from the wilderness they 
went to Mattanali : 

19 And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: and from 
Nahaliel to Bamoth : 

20 And from Bamoth in the valley, that is in the 
country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which look- 
eth toward Jeshimon. 

21 And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of 
the Amorites, saying, 

22 Let me pass through thy land: we will not 
turn into the fields, or into the vineyards ; we will 
not drink of the waters of the well : but we will go 
along by the king's high way, until we be past thy 
borders. 



16 And from thence they journeyed to Beer : that is 
the well whereof the Lord said unto Moses, 
Gather the people together, and I will give them 
water. 

17 Then sang Israel this song : 
Spring up, O well ; sing ye unto it : 

18 The well, which the princes digged, 
Which the nobles of the people delved, 
With the sceptre, and with their staves. 

And from the wilderness they journeyed to Mat- 

19 tanah : and from Mattanah to Nahaliel : and 

20 from Nahaliel to Bamoth : and from Bamoth to 
the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top 
of Pisgah, which looketh down upon the desert. 

21 And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of 

22 the Amorites, saying. Let me pass through thy 
land : we will not turn aside into field, or into 
vineyard ; we will not drink of the water of the 
wells : we will go by the king's high way, until 



the wars that were waged in Jehovah's name 
against the heathen. In the earlier period of 
the monarchy the battles of Israel against the 
Philistines began to be thought of as Jehovah's 
wars (see 1 Sam. 17 : 45 ; 18 : IT ; 25 : 28). Not im- 
probably the Well Song (ver. 17, 18), and the Song 
of Moses (Kxod. 15 : 1-18), were preserved in this 
collection. This fragment simply enumerates 
some names of places in the accusative as the 
object of some verb not given, and appears to 
be interesting to the writer on account of the 
mention of Arnon and its valleys. The first 
words are obscure and are given as proper 
names in the Revised version. George Adam 
Smith translates : 

" Waheb in Suphah [we passed] and the val- 
leys of Arnon, 

And the cliff of the valleys, which stretches 
to Ar's seat, 

And leans on the border of Moab." 

The places mentioned in ver. 16-20 are thus 
identified by Henry A. Harper, who quotes 
from Major Conder of the Palestine Exploration 
Fund : " They went on to ' Beer,' where a well 
was dug, thence to Mattanah, which we may 
easily recognize as the great Wady Waleh, with 
its rude stone monuments and brook. Nahaliel, 
' the valley of God,' is the gorge of Callirhoe, 
above which on the north stands another great 
group of both menhirs and dolmens, and thus 
Bamoth Baal falls into place as the ridge south 
of the stream of Wady Jideid, now called the 
' Crucified One,' which presents a group of 
more than a hundred rude stone monuments. 
The Israelite journey was thus in a straight line 
to Pisgah, and their camps were at distances 
equal to those which the Bedawin accomplished 
on an average in their moves. Each great 
brook is mentioned, and the line is that which 
a large body of men must of necessity take on 



account of the absence of water on the flat 
plateau further east. Now they got their first 
view of the Land of Promise, for they looked 
toward Jeshimon, that waste west of the Dead 
Sea." The occurrence at Beer (ver. le) was per- 
haps notable as being the people's first experi- 
ence of supplying their want of water through 
good, downright, self-reliant digging, as distin- 
guished from miracle or hunting for water- 
courses. We can imagine vt^ith what alacrity 
all classes of the people, even the princes and 
nobles, sprang to the task of obeying the novel 
and grateful command. The event is celebrated 
with another quotation from old folk-song. In- 
stead of, By the direction of the lawgiver 
(ver. 18), the translation of the Revised version 
is to be preferred. It is perhaps needless to say 
that not a literal digging with scepter and staff 
of ofiice is meant in the poetic imagery of the 
song, but such a personal interest in and minute 
direction of the work as exemplified what can 
be accomplished when the most intelligent and 
powerful enter genuinely into details with their 
men. " This journey, though it is described in 
the book of Numbers before the war with Sihon, 
must have come after the latter. No host, so 
large and encumbered as this, could have ven- 
tured down any of the glens from the plateau 
to the Jordan before their own warriors had oc- 
cupied Heshbon, for Heshbon, standing above 
them, commands these glens" (Smith). 

21-30. The history of this war with Sihon is 
given as from the lips of Moses in Deut. 2 : 26-37. 
The place from which the messengers were sent 
is there specified as the Wilderness of Kedemotli, 
or "eastern parts" (Deut. 2:26). The Amorite 
king though marked for defeat (Deut. 2 : 24), was 
first addressed with " words of peace," in order 
that his destruction might be on his own head. 
A request for a harmless passage through his 
land, similar to the one sent to the king of 



Ch. XXI.] 



NUMBERS 



85 



23 And Silion would not suffer Israel to pass 
through his border: but Sihon gathered all his 
people together, and went out against Israel into 
the wilderness : and he came to Jahaz, and fought 
against Israel. 

24 And Israel smote him with the edge of the 
sword, and possessed his laud from Arnon unto 
Jabbok, even unto tlae children of Ammon : for the 
border of the children of Ammon was strong. 

25 And Israel took all these cities : and Israel 
dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, 
and in all the villages thereof. 

26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of 
the Amorites, who had fought against the former 
king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his 
hand, even unto Arnon. 

27 Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, 
Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built 
and prepared : 

28 For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame 
from the city of Sihon : it hath consumed Ar of 
Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon. 

29 Woe to thee, Moab ! thou art undone, O people 
of Chemosh ; he hath given his sous that escaped, 
and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king 
of the Amorites. 

30 We have shot at them ; Heshbon is perished 
even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste 
even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba. 



23 we have passed thy border. And Sihon would 
not suffer Israel to pass through his border : but 
Sihon gathered all his people together, and went 
out against Israel into the wilderness, and came 

24 to Jahaz : and he fought against Israel. And 
Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, 
and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jab' 
bok, even unto the children of Ammon : for the 
border of the children of Ammon was strong. 

25 And Israel took all these cities : and Israel 
dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Hesh- 

26 bon, and in all the towns thereof. For Heshbon 
was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, 
who had fought against the former king of 
Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, 

27 even unto Arnon. Wherefore they that speak 
in proverbs say. 

Come ye to Heshbon, 

Let the city of Sihon be built and established : 

28 For a tire is gone out of Heshbon, 
A flame from the city of Sihon : 
It hath devoured Ar of Moab, 

The lords of the high places of Arnon. 

29 Woe to thee, Moab ! 

Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh : 
He hath given his sons as fugitives. 
And his daughters into captivity, 
Unto Sihon king of the Amorites. 

30 We have shot at them ; Heshbon is perished 

even unto Dibon, 
And we have laid waste even unto Nophah, 
Which reacheth unto Medeba. 



Edom (20 : iT-iQ), which latter, by the way, seems 
to have been not altogether unheeded, at least 
on the east of the Arabah (see Deut. 2 : 29)^ was 
met by a refusal and a gathering of Sihon' s 
forces at Jahaz, a place in the neighborhood of 

Kedemoth (Oeut. 2 : 32 ; Isa. 15 : 4 ; Jer. 48 : 21, 34), 

and near the southeast limit of Sihon' s terri- 
tory. Instead of turning aside, as in the former 
case (cf. 20 : 21), from their course, which from 
high up some branch of the Arnon, where they 
were, must necessarily strike westward across 
Sihon's territory in order to reach the Jordan, 
the Israelites met him in battle and gained a 
decisive victory — one of the much celebrated 
events of Israeli tish history (ps. i35 : ii ; i36 : 19)— 
which gave them possession of the whole of his 
territory from Arnon unto Jabbok. Sihon's 
dominion is described in Josh. 12 : 2, The advance 
of the victory-flushed Israelites was stopped 
only by the border of the children of 
Ammon, which is naively characterized as 
strong (ver. 24). Another and more theocratic 
reason existed, according to Deuteronomy (2 : i9, 
37), for not invading the territory of Ammon, but 
no doubt the good strong frontier was a great help 
to the Israelites in interpreting the divine com- 
mand in this case. The elation of realizing 
that so soon in their fighting career the Israel- 
ites were actually dwelling in the cities of the 
Amorites, and especially in Heshbon, Sihon's 
capital, and in all the " daughters " or depend- 
ent towns thereof, furnishes occasion for giving 
an account of how this Moabitish territory came 
into possession of an Amorite king to begin with. 



"That Israel's fighting began after the pas- 
sage of the Arnon, was due to a recent change in 
the political disposition of Eastern Palestine. 
Properly all the country from Jabbok to Arnon 
belonged, northwards to Ammon, southwards 
to Moab. But shortly before Israel's arrival, 
Sihon, an Amorite king from Western Palestine, 
had crossed the Jordan, and driving Moab south- 
wards over Arnon, and Ammon eastwards to 
the sources of the Jabbok, had founded a king- 
dom for himself between these two rivers." 
(Geoege Adam Smith, " Historical Geography 
of the Holy Land." ) The taunt-song is quoted as 
from they that speak in proverbs, a name 
very nearly equivalent to our expression, "the 
poets." The word /^?3, mashal, or proverb, 
from a verb which means to compare, is not 
only used as a title for the book of Proverbs 
(Prov. 1:1), but may designate almost any kind 
of poetry, or elevated and imaginative speaking. 
Balaam on three occasions "lifted up his 
mashal" (23 : 7; 24 : 3, 15)^ Job in resuming his 
response to his friends "added to lift up his 
mashal" (Job 27:1), and the people of Israel 
when they are delivered from their troubles are 
invited to "lift up" a prescribed mashal, or 
triumphant satire against the king of Babylon 
(Isa. 14 : 4). The song here in Numbers " opens 
with the taunt of the victorious Israel to the 
Amorites to return and rebuild their city (ver. 27), 
then (ver. 28, 29) describes how the Amorites 
had come to be there, namely, by previously 
taking the country from Moab, and returns 
(ver. 30) to the kcynote of Israel's own victory : 



86 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXII. 



31 Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. 

32 And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they 
took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amor- 
ites that were there. 

33 And they turned and went up by the way of 
Bashan : and Og the king of Bashan went out 
against them, he, and all his people, to the battle 
at Edrei. 

34 And the Lord said unto Moses, Fear him not : 
for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his 
people, and his laud ; and thou shalt do to him as 
thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which 
dwelt at Heshbon. 

35 So they smote him, and his sons, and all his 
people, until there was none left him alive : and 
they possessed his land. 



31 Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. 

32 And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and thev took 
the towns thereof, and drove out the Amorites 

33 that were there. And they turned and went up 
by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of 
Bashan went out against them, he and all his 

34 people, to battle at Edrei. And the Lord said 
unto Moses, Fear him not : for I have delivered 
him into thy hand, and all his people, and his 
land ; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst 
unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt 

35 at Heshbon. So they smote him, and his sons, 
and all his people, until there was none left him 
remaining : and they possessed his land. 



CHAPTER XXII 



1 AND the children of Israel set forward, and 
pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan 
by Jericho. 



1 AND the children of Israel journeyed, and 
pitched in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan 
at Jericho. 



" Come ye to Heshbon ! 
Let the city of Sihon be built and set up again ! 
For fire had gone forth from Heshbon, 
Flame from the fortress of Sihon, 
Had devoured 'Ar of Moab, 
And consumed the high places of Arnon. 
Woe to thee, Moab ! 
Thou art undone, people of Chemosh ! 
He hath given up his sons to be runaways. 
His daughters to captivity. 
To the king of the Amorites, Sihon ! 
But we shot at them, Heshbon was undone — 

unto Daibon, 
And we laid waste unto Nobah (?), which 

lies on the desert" (Smith). 

The reading, the deseH (^er. so)^ instead of 
Medeba, is adopted by Dillmann, from the 
Peshitto, on the supposition that Nophah is the 
same as the Nobah of Judg. 8 : 11, which is 
northeast of Heshbon and not near Medeba at 
all. But the text is very uncertain. Heshbon 
"was situate on a low hill rising out of the 
elevated table-land about sixteen miles east of 
the Jordan, where its ruins (of the Roman 
period ) are still visible " (Deivee.) Chemosh 
(ver. 29) was the national god of the Moabites 
(cf. jer. 48 : 7, 13, 46), no doubt the Very deity to 
whom Mesha, the king of Moab, offered up his 
son as a burnt offering (2 Kings 3 : 27). The wor- 
ship of Chemosh was introduced into Israel by 
Solomon (1 Kings 11 : 7 ; 2 Kings 23 : 13). Several of 
these names appear on the celebrated Moabite 
Stone of King Mesha, from which the spelling 
Daibon (-s-er. so) is adopted by Professor Smith. 

31-35. The account of the conquest of Bashan, 
and the description of the country, are more fully 
given in Deut. 3 : 1-17. This section in Num- 
bers is pronounced by critics an insertion by a 
Deuteronomic writer; and indeed there is but 



little mention of Og and the conquest of his 
country in the Hexateuch outside of the well- 
marked Deuteronomic passages. Israel was 
probably settled for some time in the Moabitish 
country (ver. 31), and it appears that in some 
campaign on which Moses' emissaries completed 
the conquest of Sihon' s country by taking 
Ja'azer, a city some ten miles northeast of 
Heshbon, and its towns, from which they ex- 
pelled the Amorites, they "turned" (cf. Deut. 
3 : 1) and went up Bashan- way, and thus pro- 
voked a hostile demonstration from Og, the king 
of that country (ver. 33). «' A chief, such as Og 
is represented to be, was not likely to be quies- 
cent before so strong an invader on his own side 
of the river." Bashan is the region extending 
from the Yarmuk, a stream entering the Jordan 
from the east not far from the south end of the 
Sea of Galilee, northward to Mount Hermon, 
and eastward from the Sea of Galilee to the 
range of mountains called Jebel Hauran, or the 
mountains of Hauran. Deuteronomy does not 
make it very clear how or when the country of 
Gilead, or the region from the Jabbok to the 
Yarmuk, was subdued by the Israelites ; and it 
sometimes reads as if the dominion of Og ex- 
tended to the Jabbok. The place where Og 
gave battle was Edrei, the present Adra'a, east 
of the source of the Yarmuk. Edrei is usually 
mentioned in connection with 'Ashtaroth (Josh. 
12 : 4; 13 : 12, 31 ; Deut. 1 : 4) and appears to havc 
been one of the residences of the king, while 
Ashtaroth was his capital (Josh. 9 : lo). Jehovah 
assured Moses that he should subdue Og and his 
country in the same decisive way in which he 
had conquered Sihon (ver. 34) , a prediction which 
was abundantly fulfilled (ver. 35). 



Chap. 22 : 1 is probably from the priestly 
source, and is connected in sense with ver. 10, 



Ch. XXII.] 



NUMBERS 



87 



2 And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel 
had done to the Amorites. 

3 And Moab was sore afraid of the people, be- 
cause they were many: and Moab was distressed 
because of the children of Israel. 

4 And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now 
shall this company lick up all that are round about 
us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the held. And 
Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites 
at that time. 



2 And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Is- 

3 rael had done to the Amorites. And Moab was 
sore afraid of the people, because they were 
many : and Moab was distressed because of the 

4 children of Israel. And Moab said unto the 
elders of Midian, Now shall this multitude lick 
up all that is round about us, as the ox licketh 
up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of 



11. It is a summary of the journey, given more 
in detail in 33 : 45-48, from the first camping- 
place on the confines of Moab to the Jordan 



Valley a little above the north end of the Dead 
Sea. On this side Jordan should rather be, 
beyond the Jordan^ as in K. V. 



PART THIRD. OCCURRENCES AND DIVINE INSTRUCTIONS DURING 
THE SOJOURN IN THE STEPPES OF MOAB, CHAPTERS 22 : 2 TO 36. 



This third section opens with an account 
of the performances of Balak the king of 
Moab who, appalled by the number and suc- 
cess of the children of Israel, sought to enlist 
the unseen supernatural forces against these 
formidable invaders through the soothsayer 
Balaam, but was foiled by Jehovah's taking 
control of the seer's operations and turning the 
curse into a blessing. Meanwhile Israel, the 
course of whose history this treatment does 
not directly modify, was placidly lying in 
the plains of Moab stretched out from Beth- 
jeshimoth to Abel-shittim ; and the only prom- 
inent occurrences related in connection with 
this part of the history are the falling into the 
seductive temptations of the Baal-peor worship 
(chap. 25)j with the consequent retribution of the 
plague, and the war with Midian undertaken by 
Israel as the punitive agents of Jehovah, and 
resulting in a permanent rule for the distribu- 
tion of spoil (chap. 31). Much work of a plan- 
ning and statistical nature was accomplished, 
such as the second taking of the census, the al- 
lotment of the land on the east of the Jordan to 
the two tribes and a half which chose to inherit 
the pastoral territory already conquered, the 
fixing of the tribal boundaries in western Pales- 
tine, and the designating of Levitical towns 
and cities of refuge. A recapitulation of all 
the stations occupied during the wilderness 
journey is inserted from the priestly sources, 
and various regulations regarding the inherit- 
ance and marriage of heiresses, the priestly of- 
ferings for stated occasions, and the sanctity of 
vows, complete the preparation of the tribes for 
their entrance on their promised possession. 

2-41. Balaam's summons to curse Is- 
rael, AND HIS JOURNEY TO MoAB. Balak 
the son of Zippor (ver. 2) is explained in ver. 
4, as being king of Moab at the time. Perhaps 



he was not the hereditary descendant of the 
"former king of Moab" (21 : 26) who was 
dispossessed by Sihon, but one of a new dy- 
nasty, and not impossibly a Midianite, as the 
later Targums make him, a circumstance 
which would be in keeping with the totemistic 
suggestion of his ancestor's name *TI3V, Tsippor, 
or " bird," as compared with other Midianite 
princes' names, 2"^.}?, 'Oreb, "crow," and ^^?T, 
Ze'eb, " wolf" (Judg. 1 : 25). He may have been 
imposed on the Moabites as a ruler by Sihon (cf. 
Josh. 13 : 21). The Moabites, who had been 
driven to the south of Arnon (see on 21 : 21-30), 
now found themselves completely flanked by 
the children of Israel who had gone around them 
without harming them and obtained a firm 
lodgment to their north, on the very ground 
which they had been unable to defend and re- 
tain. Ver. 3 contains a doubled statement de- 
scribing the emotions of the Moabites at being 
thus calmly shouldered aside by a numerous 
and mysterious people : they were terrified, and 
they were distressed, or, disgusted — such a 
feeling as Rebekah had regarding the daugh- 
ters of Heth (Gen. 27 : 46), or the Egyptians re- 
garding the rapidly multiplying Israelite slaves 
whom they afflicted (Exod. i : 12). The particular 
horror which the Moabites expressed in their 
plea with the elders of Midian for an alliance 
was not the fear of their new neighbors' military 
prowess, but the apprehension of being eaten 
out of house and home (ver. 4), a somewhat spe- 
cious sort of plea for a pastoral people (of. 3i : 32, 

seq. ; 2 Kings 3 : i) who had fcW growiug CropS tO 

be disturbed. The Midianites ought to have 
been able to appreciate the description of such 
greedy traits as especially characterized them- 
selves (Judg. 6 : 3-5). The isolated mention of the 
elders of Midian (ver. 4, 7) comes somewhat 
unprepared, and leads one to remark that a 



88 



NUMBEKS 



[Ch. XXII. 



5 He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the 
sou of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the 
land of the children of his people, to call him, say- 
ing, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt : 
behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they 
abide over against me : 

6 Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this 
people ; for they are too mighty for me : peradven- 
ture I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and 
that I may drive them out of the land : for I wot 
that he whom thou blessestis blessed, and he whom 
thou cursest is cursed. 

7 And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian 
departed with the rewards of divination in their 
hand ; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto 
him the words of Balak. 



5 Zippor was king of Moab at that time. And he 
sent messengers unto Balaam the son of Beor, 
to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of 
the children of his people, to call him, saying, 
Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt : 
behold, they cover the face of the earth, and 

6 they abide over against me : come now there- 
fore, I pray thee, curse me this people ; for they 
are too mighty for me : perad venture I shall pre- 
vail, that we may smite them, and that I may 
drive them out of the land : for I know that he 
whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom 

7 thou cursest is cursed. And the elders of Moab 
and the elders of Midian departed with the re- 
wards of divination in their hand ; and they 
came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the 



branch of that people, who otherwise were 
mostly inhabitants of Arabia east of the Elan- 
itic gulf, had settled in the field of Moab (Gen. 
36 : 35) and were probably tributary to Sihon and 
involved in the recent defeat of the Amorites by 
Israel (Josh. 13 : 21), After their defeat along with 
the Amalekites and other Arabs by Gideon ( Judg. 
6, seq.) they disappear from history. The timid 
and superstitious Balak undertook to "fight" 
against the children of Israel (cf. Josh. 24 : 9) by 
the supernatural agency of curses and spells. 
He evidently regarded those people as enjoying 
a peculiar demonic favor which by means of a 
sufficiently influential curse he could overcome 
so as to prevail against them by force of arms 
(ver. 6). The importance of prophetic, or even 
ordinary men's, blessings and curses was very 
much more taken account of in ancient times 

than in these days (see on Lev. 19 : 14 ; cf. Gen. 9 : 25- 

27 ; 27 : 4, 33, 87, etc. ) ; and a belief in the validity 
of Balaam's utterances, and the consequent im- 
portance of their being kept favorable to Israel, 
was no doubt entertained by the narrator of 
these chapters, and by the Deuteronomist (oeut. 
23 : 4, 5), though not on any such superstitious 
grounds as Balak' s, who had so much less ele- 
vated an idea of the divine nature and activity. 
Balak sent messengers to Balaam the son 
of Beor (ver. 5), to Pethor, which is by the 
river, i. e., the Euphrates. The place is 
called in Deut. 23 : 4 Pethor of Mesopotamia 
('Aram-Naharaim), and in Balaam's discourses 
(23:7) "Aram" and "the Mountains of the 
East." It has been identified with the Pitru 
often mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions 
of Shalmaneser II., which was on the right 
bank of the upper Euphrates, near the junction 
of the Sajur, and not strictly in Mesopotamia, 
though so near it as to be not improperly con- 
founded with it in an oratorical description. 
Balaam's abode is called the land of the 
children of his people, or i^H, 'ammo, a 
form which some regard as the name of a god 
and render, "children of Ammo." It is said 



that the Aramaeans of Pethor called themselves 
"sons of Ammo." Others are inclined to con- 
jecture that 'ammo has accidentally become sub- 
stituted for 'ammon, in accordance with the sus- 
picion that Balaam was a Midianite living no 
farther away than among the Ammonites. Of 
the personality of Balaam little is known. The 
form of the name Balaam is derived from the 
LXX, the Hebrew pointing being Bileam. The 
name is derived from J^73, bala', to devour, 
with the syllable 'am which is probably an af- 
formative. It is a curious coincidence that the 
first king of Edom, Bela the son of Beor (Gen. 
36 : 32) J had virtually the same name and father's 
name. Widespread traditions identify Balaam 
with Lokman the Arabian fabulist, the ^sop of 
the East, whose name also means "devourer," 
and who was said by Arabic writers to be the son 
of Ba'ura, i. e., Beor, " The Hebrew book of 
Henoch states that Balaam was called in Arabic 
Loknim, probably a misreading for Lokman." 
Balaam is usually mentioned without any desig- 
nation of his office, though in one place (2 Peter 
2 : 16) he is called a prophet, and Josh. 13 : 22 
designates him as a soothsayer, as he is regarded 
by Balak, whose messengers approach him with 
the "rewards of divination in their hand" 
(ver. 7). He evidently had a great reputation 
for the uniformity with which his pronounce- 
ments took eflect (ver. 6). In his way he seems to 
have been a worshiper of the true God, who ac- 
cording to the narrator repeatedly communicates 
with him, and whom in his own utterances he 
almost uniformly names Jehovah. In one place 
he uses the expression, "Jehovah my God" 
(ver. 18), That he was a bad man does not appear 
to be indicated in the narrative, at least until 
he abandoned himself and gave the devilish 
counsel followed in chap. 25. The adverse mor- 
alizings in later parts of the Bible suggested by 
his history, when not simply censures of Moab 

for hiring him (neut. 23 : 4, 5 ; Josh. 24 : 9 ; Neh. 13 : 

2), are either in regard to his venality (2 Peter 2 : 
15; Jude ii), or to his advicc in the matter of 



Ch. XXII.] 



NUMBEES 



89 



8 And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, 
and I will bring you word again, as the Lord shall 
speak unto me: and the princes of Moab abode 
with Balaam. 

9 And God came unto Balaam, and said, What 
men are these with thee? 

10 And Balaam said unto God, Balak the son of 
Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, saying, 

11 Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, 
which covereth the face of the earth : come now, 
curse me them ; peradventure I shall be able to 
overcome them, and drive them out. 

12 And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go 
with them ; thou shalt not curse the people : for 
they are blessed. 



8 words of Balak. And he said unto them, Lodge 
here this night, and I will bring you word again, 
as the Lord shall speak unto me : and the princes 

9 of Moab abode with Balaam. And God came 
unto Balaam, and said. What men are these with 

10 thee? And Balaam said unto God, Balak the 
son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, 

11 saying. Behold, the people that is come out of 
Egypt, it covereth the face of the earth : now, 
come curse me them ; peradventure I shall be 
able to tight against them, and shall drive them 

12 out. And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt 
not go with them ; thou shalt not curse the peo- 



Beth-peor (Rev. 2:i4), while in one place his 
counsel is warmly commended as important to 
be kept in mind (Micah 6:5), The struggle and 
the crisis in his character, together with the 
question of his inspiration on this occasion, will 
be discussed as we follow the story. 

In his message to Balaam the panic-stricken 
Moabite king is most vividly impressed with 
the immense number of the Israelitish host: 
they are a people come out of Egypt — that land 
which is almost a synonym for teeming fecun- 
dity — and they cover the "eye of the earth" 
(ver. 5). The men sent are elders of Moab and 
elders of Midian (ver. 7), and their errand is 
ordered like a common official visit to a sooth- 
sayer, with the customary "divinations " (mean- 
ing divining fees — just as "tidings" means re- 
ward for tidings in 2 Sam. 4 : 10) — in their hand. 

8-21. With this section we begin to meet the 
textual traits which lead critics to assign the 
Balaam story to its distinct source. The notice- 
able thing is that in ver. 8-21 the narrator 
uniformly employs the name 'Elohim, or God, 
when there is occasion to speak of the Deity, 
while Balaam as uniformly uses the name Jeho- 
vah. On the other hand, in ver. 22-35 the 
principal divine agency, which is the angel, 
appears always as the angel of Jehovah, and 
it is Jehovah who opens the mouth of the ass 
and the eyes of Balaam. This use of the divine 
names, with some other mannerisms of diction, 
leads the critics to assign ver. 8-21 to E, and 
ver. 22-35 to J. This theory of diverse sources, 
however, simply leads us into a mU de sac, so 
far as any explanation of the peculiar use of 
the divine names is concerned ; and to me there 
appears a deeper congruity in this remarkable 
distribution of the names Elohim and Jehovah 
which the mere chance welding together of 
diverse traditions cannot account for. Elohim 
stands for the simple, massive conception of 
God as the universal creative Energy and Infi- 
nite Norm of Truth and Right — that God who 
does not come to exist for us by our formulation 
of his idea, but whose pressure we feel through 



our primary moral intuitions. Jehovah is the 
same God revealed and given an intellectual 
content which may become the basis of a theol- 
ogy and the inspiring motive of a cult. Aside 
from all finely aimed ethnical and etymological 
inquiries, this is the broad residual distinction 
between the two names. It is very much like 
the distinction between so-called natural and 
revealed religion. Revealed religion — religion 
which comes to us through our concepts — is in- 
dispensable as a means for rendering the idea of 
God fruitful and saving ; but our concepts, how- 
ever inspiring, must continually come back to 
our purest natural intuitions for ethical correc- 
tion, lest in our dogmatic self-confidence we be- 
come blind leaders of the blind. It was his pri- 
mary intuition of right— what Christ calls " the 
light that is in thee" (Matt, e : 23) — that per- 
suaded Balaam that Israel was a blessed people ; 
it was the Jehovah whom he professed and of 
whom he made his ordered inquiries whom he 
unconsciously sought to manipulate into an 
ultimate permission to earn Balak's reward, and 
iSO was thrown out of unity with himself. 

The kind of divination which Balak expected 
of Balaam, and which was no doubt his char- 
acteristic method, will give us an idea of the 
mental make-up of the man, which is the psy- 
chological basis on which we must build our 
understanding of his story in these three chap- 
ters. He was to come where he could see the 
object with whose destiny he was to concern 
himself ; and it is to be noted that Balak makes 
his message vivid to the seeing imagination by 
describing the broad, general appearance of the 
Israelites as they lay in their camp " covering 
the eye of the earth." This picture, it will be 
observed, impressed itself on Balaam's imagina- 
tion so that he reproduced it in his conversa- 
tion with God (ver. 11), and the mere description 
was a sufficient basis for God's communication 
to Balaam's inner consciousness that the Israel- 
ites were a blessed people (ver. 12). Balaam's 
method of divination, therefore, is seen to be 
that of rapport through suggestion. With a 



90 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXII. 



13 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said 
unto the princes of Balak, Get you into your land : 
for the Lord refuseth to give me leave to go with 
you. 

14 And the princes of Moab rose up, and they 
went unto Balak, and said, Balaam refuseth to 
come with us. 

15 And Balak sent yet again princes, more, and 
more honourable than they. 

16 And they came to Balaam, and said to him, 
Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I 
pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me : 

17 For I will promote thee unto very great hon- 
our, and I will do whatsoever thou say est unto 
m^e: con>e therefore, I pray thee, curse me this 
people. 

18 And Balaam answered and said unto the 
servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his 
house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond 
the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more. 



13 pie : for they are blessed. And Balaam rose up 
in the morning, and said unto the princes of 
Balak, Get you into your land : for the Lord 

14 refuseth to give me leave to go with you. And 
the princes of Moab rose up, and they went 
unto Balak, and said, Balaam refuseth to come 

15 with us. And Balak sent yet again princes, 

16 more, and more honourable than they. And 
they came to Balaam, and said to him. Thus 
saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I 
pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me : 

17 for I will promote thee unto very great honour, 
and whatsoever thou sayest unto me I will do : 
come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this peo- 

18 pie. And Balaam answered and said unto the 
servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his 
house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond 
the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more. 



highly imaginative temperament Balaam was 
keenly susceptible to influence through his 
vivid inner perceptions. It was the receptive 
temperament such as characterizes mediums, 
clairvoyants, hypnotic subjects, and all who can 
be brought under the power of an alien person- 
ality. It is largely by suggestion that such per- 
sons are wrought upon. In glimpsing the fate 
of persons or peoples he had the art of a certain 
self-abandonment or surrender which made him 
perfectly passive to impressions; and in that 
state a sight of the object would so operate by 
suggestion as to awaken a premonition of its 
destiny. In his emphatic assurances to Balak 
that his movements must be as Jehovah per- 
mitted (ver. 13, 18), he implied that in his elevated 
state in which he was practising his art he was 
likely to be so borne along by the suggestions and 
impressions of the occasion as to be practically 
beyond his own control. 

Balak, however, thought of that power to 
speak of people in terms of destiny — which he 
called blessing and cursing — as a real power to 
influence them for good or evil, instead of a 
rapport which followed rather than commanded 
their fate. He therefore wished to employ Ba- 
laam's curse as a malign force. So shallow, in- 
deed, were his conceptions of spiritual things 
that when Balaam told him the first time that 
Jehovah refused to give him leave to go on the 
errand of cursing, he took it that he had not 
bidden high enough, and no doubt thought of 
Balaam's God himself as procurable for any 
purpose for a sufficiently high price (ver. le, i7). 
This grossly sordid and venal notion Balaam 
is very prompt to correct (^er. is), and he assures 
him that the whole business is a matter of faith- 
fulness to that inner reality which he calls " the 
word of Jehovah his God," rather than of his 
arbitrary choice as a wielder of occult forces. 

The contrast of these two men's ideas of the 
real nature of this blessing and cursing will 



help us to form an opinion of Balaam's relig- 
ion. The consulting king's notion of the deity 
who presides over fate was that of a venal, ca- 
pricious being who could be won to either side 
of a controversy by rewards, or cajoled and 
compelled by incantations and sacrifices. This 
was essentially a heathenish idea — an idea 
which is the very contrast and denial of the 
true approach to God. On the contrary, Ba- 
laam thinks of God as great and incorruptible 
and unescapable — one whose will is not to be 
commanded by a mortal, but ascertained and 
submitted to. As a publisher of destiny, there- 
fore, he is simply in God's hands ; he must pro- 
claim what God says. In his passive surrender 
to impressions he is simply throwing himself 
upon the great tide of Jehovah's world designs, 
to be borne irresistibly whither it leads. Now 
this, however much it may lack of the fall- 
orbed knowledge of God which is revealed in 
his Son, is far from heathenish ; it is a right con- 
ception of God as far as it goes. It is at least 
a walking humbly before him as the mighty 
World-Power whom we cannot corrupt or 
change. Exactly this contrast between the no- 
tion of a God who is flattered and bought over by 
selfishly fulsome propitiations and a God who 
requires only right and mercifal and humble 
conduct is brought out in that epitome of ra- 
tional religion which Micah the prophet gives 
as a quotation from Balaam's response to the 
superstitious Moabite king, or at least the proph- 
et's reflection directly inspired by some tradition 
of Balaam's sayings otherwise unknown : 

*' "Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, 
And bow myself before the high God ? 
Shall I come before him with burnt-ofierings. 
With calves of a year old ? 
Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of 

rams? 
With ten-thousands of rivers of oil ? 



Ch. XXII.] 



NUMBEKS 



91 



19 Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here 
this night, that I may know what the Lord will say 
unto me more. 

20 And God came unto Balaam at night, and said 



19 Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this 
night, that I may know what the' Lord will speak 

20 unto me more. And God came unto Balaam at 



Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, 

Fruit of my body for sin of my soul ? 

He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ; 

And what is Jehovah seeking of thee, 

But to do justice and to love mercy. 

And to walk humbly with thy God ? " 

(Micah 6 : 5-8.) 

It is not particularly strange that a clear- 
sighted man, even though not of the chosen 
people, should hold such sane and rational 
views of God and duty — but they belong to one 
who acknowledges Jehovah (see ver. is). Here 
is the unbiased sense of right fructified by the 
concept of God as Jehovah, the " One who Is " 
— the everlasting Constant Term — as distin- 
guished from one whom we form and mold 
either by the work of our hands, or by flatter- 
ies and occult compulsions. Balaam no doubt 
worshiped Jehovah aa the only God who could 
satisfy his insight, but withal in a liberal and 
rationalistic way, and not with that idol-hating 
exclusiveness which alone could pass for ortho- 
doxy in Judaism (cf. 23 : 1, 29). The question of 
his character, however, does not turn on that of 
the God whom he contemplated and feared to 
resist, but on the prevalence in his religion of 
love and the sincere service of the whole heart. 

Balaam invited the princely messengers in to 
lodge for the night, promising to consult Jeho- 
vah regarding their request and bring them 
word in the morning (ver. s). The account goes 
on to say that God came to Balaam, and after 
asking him in human fashion who were his 
visitors and receiving Balak's message in due 
form, straitly prohibited his going on any errand 
of cursing against Israel, for they were a blessed 
or divinely favored people (ver. 10-12). In what 
form God " came " to Balaam we have no infor- 
mation. That it occurred at night does not 
prove that God communicated with Balaam by 
a dream, and from the circumstances of the case 
this seems unlikely, as it was evidently in re- 
sponse to some way which Balaam had of con- 
sulting Jehovah that he obtained the communi- 
cation, and people do not generally possess the 
power of inducing dreams at will. It seems to 
me a rational conjecture that the consultation 
with Jehovah was through no traumatic or 
hypnotic evoking of the "subliminal conscious- 
ness," but simply by intense meditation in a 
thoroughly self-emptied and alertly receptive 
spirit. This was what he called ' ' inquiring." As 



Balak's vivid picture of wide-spreading Israel 
passed before his mind, and all the circum- 
stances of that wonderful people's divinely 
guided migration from Egypt arose in order 
before his deeply seeing imagination, there 
swept in upon him such an overwhelming sense 
of a World-Power and Eternal Purpose, with 
whom this people was at one, as brought the 
vast and vague but irresistible conviction that 
Israel was blessed. '* God came to him." 
Balaam was admitted to a perception of the 
mighty sweep of that cosmical Energy which 
can be designated by the name of no tribal or 
ecclesiastical deity but by the universally divine 
term Elohim. The forms of question and an- 
swer with which the colloquy with God is 
clothed are, no doubt, due to the vivid imagi- 
nation of the seer himself, whose temperament 
as a dweller in the border-land between fantasy 
and common reality naturally endowed all his 
deeper mental operations with concrete forms. 

In the morning Balaam sent away the mes- 
sengers with the answer that Jehovah refused 
him permission to go with them (ver. 13). When 
this answer reached Balak, that monarch in his 
shallow worldliness supposed that it meant only 
an avaricious soothsayer's haggling for a higher 
reward. With a larger and more honorable dele- 
gation he renewed his request, promising him 
the highest honors and whatever emolument he 
might name, but urging him on no account to 
fail to come to him (ver. i5-n). Balaam answered 
that the obstacle was not the insufficiency of the 
reward ; however magnificent that might be, he 
could not go beyond the word of Jehovah in the 
case (ver. 18). But as the message bade him let 
nothing hinder him from going to Balak, the 
thought would suggest itself that even the possi- 
bility of another oracle being given him than 
the one Balak desired need not prevent him 
from doing so much as make the journey. With 
this new phase of the problem in mind, Balaam 
again delayed the messengers for the night, 
while he reopened the question with Jehovah in 
the hope of an additional communication from 
him (ver. 19). And sure enough, the message 
comes which he desires. Even in that audience 
of his inquiring, but not entirely self-eflflicing, 
soul with God he finds a way to reconcile it with 
his conscience to make the journey. There is 
almost a quibble in the verbal permission into 
which his imagination shapes the grateful easing 



92 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXII. 



unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and 
go with them ; but j^et the word which I shall say 
unto thee, that shalt thou do. 

21 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and sad- 
dled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. 

22 And God 's anger was kindled because he went : 
and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an 
adversary against him. Now he was riding upon 
his ass, and his two servants were with him. 

23 And the ass saw the angel of the Lord stand- 
ing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand : 
and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went 
into the field : and Balaam smote the "ass, to turn 
her into the way. 

24 But the angel of the Lord stood in a path of 
the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall 
on that side. 

25 And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, 
she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Ba- 
laam's foot against the wall: and he smote her 
again. 

2ti And the angel of the Lord went further, and 
stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn 
either to the right hand or to the left. 

27 And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, 
she fell dowu under Balaam : and Balaam's anger 
was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. 

28 And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, 
and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto 
thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? 

29 And Balaam said unto the ass. Because thou 
hast mocked me : I would there were a sword in 
mine hand, for now would I kill thee. 



of his conscience in the direction of his desires : 
If the men be come to call thee — if the 

matter puts itself in the light of an invitation to 
go, whatever the outcome — rise up, and go 
w^ith them ; but yet the word which I 
shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do 

(ver. 20). The diviuB communications with the 
human soul are never altogether objective. There 
is something in the soul itself which helps to 
shape them, and it is possible by our very attitude 
to extort a permission vrhieh does not enlist the 
conscience, but only stills its voice. Balaam felt 
permitted to go, but his soul was not at peace. 

22-35. This section, in which the speaking 
ass is introduced, seems to have emanated from 
an author who "has different conceptions before 
his mind from those of the preceding and follow- 
ing contexts" (Bacon). Balaam starts "with 
the princes of Moab" on a journey which, ac- 
cording to the locating of Balaam's abode as at 
Pethor (ver. 5; 23 : 7 ; Deut. 23 : 4), must have been 
a caravan journey of over three hundred miles 
across the Syrian waste. For such a journey 
one would expect the use of camels, but Balaam 
sets out on an ass with two servants (ver. 22) ^ 
and presently we find him in a hollow way be- 
tween vineyards (ver. 24) . Such conditions would 
indicate a much shorter journey and in a thickly 
settled and cultivated country. Some would 
find in this a derivation from a Balaam story 
not exactly in harmony with the rest of these 
three chapters and corresponding more nearly 
with 31 : 8, 16 ; Josh. 13 : 22, according to which 



night, and said unto him. If the men be come 
to call thee, rise up, go with them ; but only the 
word which I speak unto thee, that shalt thou 

21 do. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and 
saddled his ass, and went with the princes of 

22 Moab. And God's anger was kindled because 
he went : and the angel of the Lord placed him- 
self in the way for an adversary against him. 
Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two 

23 servants were with him. And the ass saw the 
angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his 
sword drawn in his hand : and the ass turned 
aside out of the way, and went into the field : 
and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the 

24 way. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a 
hollow way between the vineyards, a fence be- 

25 ing on this side, and a fence on that side. And 
the ass saw the angel of the Lord, and she thrust 
herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's 
foot against the wall : and he smote her again. 

26 And the angel of the Lord went further, and 
stood in a narrow place, where was no wav to 

27 turn either to the right hand or to the left. And 
the ass saw the angel of the Lord, and she lay 
down under Balaam : and Balaam's anger was 
kindled, and he smote the ass with his staff. 

28 And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and 
she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto 
thee, that thou hast smitten me these three 

29 times? And Balaam said unto the ass, Because 
thou hast mocked me: I would there were a 
sword in mine hand, for now I had killed thee. 



Balaam, after " returning to his place " (24 : 26), 
is found in intimate counsel with the Midianites 
and is finally involved in their overthrow. It 
causes critics to raise the question whether, ac- 
cording to one stratum of tradition, Balaam was 
not a Jehovah-prophet living among the Am- 
monites (c/. "sons of Ammo," or "Ammon," 
ver. 5) J or the Midianites, from whose country 
Moses apparently brought the elements of the 

Jehovah worship (Exod. S : 1, seq. ; 18 : 11). 

God's anger was kindled because he was going 
(ver. 22). The use of the participle " going" in- 
dicates that it was the being actually under way 
which half brought Balaam to himself and made 
him feel uncomfortable and guilty. This is the 
only time the name DTI 75<, Elohim, God, is used 
in this section. It indicates that this anger of God, 
of which Balaam was conscious, was not mani- 
fested as a definite conviction of Jehovah's dis- 
pleasure, which would amount to a contradiction 
of the permission given in ver. 20, but a larger, 
vaguer unquiet, resulting from his finding him- 
self out of harmony with the sum of things. 
Unknown to Balaam, the angel of Jehovah had 
placed himself in the way as a " satan " or adver- 
sary. It was not until the ass, more sanely aware 
of the obstacle than the prophet, had turned out 
of the way twice (ver. 23, 25) in spite of beating 
and had finally lain down under her rider (ver. 
27), and after the third beating had opened her 
mouth in vocal remonstrance (''er. 28-30), that 
Balaam became aware of the angel's presence. 
As he prostrates himself in terror, the angel 



Ch. XXII] 



NUMBERS 



93 



30 And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine 
ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was 
thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto 
thee? And he said, Nay. 

31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and 
he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, 
and his sword drawn in his hand : and he bowed 
down his head, and fell flat on his face. 

32 And the angel of the Lord said unto him, 
Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three 
times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, be- 
cause ihy way is perverse before me : 

33 And the ass saw me, and turned from me 
these three times : unless she had turned from me, 
surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her 
alive. 

34 And Balaam said unto the angel of the Lord, 
I have sinned ; for I knew not that thou stoodest 
in the way against me : now therefore, if it dis- 
please thee, I will get me back again. 



30 And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine 
ass, upon which thou hast ridden all thy life 
long unto this day? was I ever wont to do so 

31 unto thee? And he said, Nay. Then the Lord 
opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the 
angel of the Lord standing iu the way, with his 
sword drawn in his hand : and he bowed his 

32 liead, and fell on his face. And the angel of 
the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou 
smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I 
am come forth for an adversary, because thy 

33 way is perverse before me : and the ass saw me, 
and turned aside before me these three times : 
unless she had turned aside from me, surely 
now I had even slain thee, and saved her alive. 

34 And Balaam said unto the angel of the Lord, I 
have sinned ; for I knew not that thou stoodest 
in the way against me : now therefore, if it dis- 



explains that he has placed himself in the way 
as an obstruction because "the way leads head- 
long against me," i. e., Jehovah (ver. 32). It 
seems as if the angel had come as the special 
representative of Jehovah in order to teach 
Balaam that the course which went against his 
primary intuition of right, or Elohim-conscious- 
ness, was also opposed to his dogmatically ac- 
quired and more sophisticated conception of 
God as Jehovah. The angel's reproof of Balaam 
takes pains to make prominent his treatment of 
his beast (ver. 32) and to point out that the ani- 
mal has proved more discerning than he and 
has really saved his life (ver. 33). It is Balaam's 
saner self which it is necessary to awaken, and 
this can be more normally reached if the dis- 
tracting terror at his supernatural adversary 
(ver. 31) is mitigated by his humiliation on ac- 
count of his own undignified and unjust loss of 
temper, Balaam acknowledges that he has 
sinned in beating his beast so cruelly, and pleads 
in extenuation that he did not know that the 
animal had such good reason for "mocking" 
or " vexing" him (see ver. 29). Now that he sees 
that his going to Moab is displeasing to the 
angel, or rather to Jehovah whom he represents, 
Balaam offers to return home (ver. 34)^ but is 
directed to go on with the men under the same 
rigid restriction as was placed on him before 

(ver. 35; cf. ver. 20). 

How much of this incident of the speaking 
animal is a transcript of the vivid operations 
of Balaam's perturbed mind, and how much is 
actual objective fact, it is impossible to deter- 
mine. In any case it was real to Balaam, and 
he is the only one for whose benefit the incident 
occurred and probably the only one from whom 
the report of the occurrence could reach the 
world. The only other instance of a speaking 
animal in the Bible is that of the serpent in 
Eden (Gen. 3 : 1, ai.). In this account of Balaam 
it is said that Jehovah opened the mouth of 



the ass (ver. 28), but it is very questionable 
whether the servants, if they were present, 
either heard the beast talk or saw the angel. 
It is to be noticed, as rendering the theory of 
mere invention improbable, that the subjects 
comprehended by the beast in its utterances 
were not such as transcend the mental powers of 
the brute creation. There is no mention of the 
angel, nor any apprehension of the spiritual 
entanglements in which its master is involved, 
but only a remonstrance and a reminder of past 
faithfulness. On the other hand, it may be said 
that the language of the animal expresses no 
more, when reversed to fit Balaam's point of 
view, than the prophet's own better nature 
might have suggested to him, namely, perplexity 
that a beast which he had owned for a long 
period, and which had always obeyed him, 
should thus exceptionally turn out of the way 
and need punishment three times. This feeling, 
polarized in Balaam's mind by his disturbed 
sense of divine displeasure, might easily shape 
itself in his imaginative and concrete mental 
processes into a vocal remonstrance proceeding 
from the beast which he was maltreating. 

It was a perturbed mind that rendered Balaam 
susceptible to the experiences of this unlucky 
journey. That it was the overmastering eager- 
ness of mere avarice which made him blind to 
the presence of the angel is not altogether ap- 
parent. He was not a coarse enough man for 
that. A passage in the Second Epistle of Peter 
(2 : 15, 16), w^iich, with its briefer parallel in 
Jude 11, points a moral from this part of the 
Balaam story, while assigning avarice as the 
main incentive which brought Balaam on this 
journey, nevertheless speaks of "leaving the 
straight road and getting astray" (/caraAeiTToi'Tes 

ev9elav 68ov inXavrierjaav) ^ and of the dumb bcast, 

as a rebuke of his "missing the law " ( napavo. 
fj-Lag) forbidding the " infatuation" (napa<f)poviav) 
of the prophet, in such a way as to point to a 



94 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXIII. 



35 And the angel of the Lord said unto Balaam, 
Go with the men : but only the word that I shall 
speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam 
went with the princes of Balak. 

36 And when Balak heard that Balaam was come, 
he went out to meet him unto a city of Moab, which 
is in the border of Arnon, which U in the utmost 
coast. 

37 And Balak said unto Balaam, Did I not ear- 
nestly send unto thee to call thee? wherefore 
earnest thou not unto me? am I not able indeed to 
promote thee to honour? 

38 And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come 
unto thee : have I now any power at all to say any 
thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, 
that shall I speak. 

39 And Balaam went with Balak, and they came 
unto Kirjath-huzoth. 

40 And Balak offered oxen and sheep, and sent 
to Balaam, and to the princes that were with him. 

41 And it came to f)ass on the morrow, that Balak 
took Balaam, and brought him up into the high 
places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost 
part of the people. 



35 please thee, I will get me back again. And the 
angel of the Lord said unto Balaam, Go with the 
men : but only the word that I shall speak unto 
thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went 

36 with the princes of Balak. And when Balak 
heard that Balaam was come, he went out to 
meet him unto the City of Moab, which is on 
the border of Arnon, which is in the utmost 

37 part of the border. And Balak said unto Ba- 
laam, Did I not earnestly send unto thee to call 
thee? wherefore camest thou not unto me? am 
I not able indeed to promote thee to honour? 

38 And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come 
unto thee : have I now any power at all to speak 
any thing? the word that God putteth in my 

39 mouth, that shall I speak. And Balaam went 
with Balak, and they came unto Kiriathhuzoth. 

40 And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent 
to Balaam, and to the princes that were with 

41 him. And it came to pass in the morning, that 
Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into 
the high places of Baal, and he saw from thence 
the utmost part of the people. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



1 AND Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here 
seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and 
seven rams. 

2 And Balak did as Balaam had spoken ; and Ba- 
lak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock 
and a ram. 

3 And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy 
burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure the 



1 AND Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here 
seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks 

2 and seven rams. And Balak did as Balaam had 
spoken ; and Balak and Balaam offered on every 

3 altar a bullock and a ram. And Balaam said 
unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I 



deeper maladjustment than a mere earthly ab- 
sorption in gain, in short, to indicate that the 
moralizer had in mind an unquiet somewhat 
like that massive sense of divine displeasure 
with which the account figures the prophet as 
starting out. This made him testy, and this 
made him hear rebukes for his unwonted iras- 
cibility from the very mouth of the ass, and 
finally opened his eyes to that spiritual presence 
which presented in bodily form the opposing 
attitude of Jehovah himself. 

36-41. Balak, on receiving intelligence that 
Balaam had come, went out to meet him at his 
frontier near the Arnon (cf. 21 : 13), at a city of 
Moab (ver. 36), rather, 'Irof Ifoab, probably the 
same as 'Ar (cf. 21 : 15, 28 ; isa. 15 : 1). He ehided the 
tardy prophet for his delay, which to his vanity 
seemed to be a reflection on his purchasing 
power (ver. 37), and received the rather chilling 
assurance that with all his magnificent promises 
he had only commanded Balaam's presence, 
not his mantic power, which he still reserved 
subject to the unascertained dictation of God 
(ver. 38). From the frontier city Balaam was 
conducted to m'2fn H^'^P, Qiriath-huzoth, or 
City of streets (ver. 39), not improbably Balak's 
official residence, as Huzoth is apparently men- 
tioned as such on an Egyptian papyrus in the 
British Museum. A peace-offering banquet 
welcomed Balaam and the princes with him 
(ver. 40) ; and the next morning he was brought 
to the high places, or bamoth, of Baal, 



which is no doubt the Bamoth, or Bamoth-haal 
mentioned as one of the stopping-places of the 
children of Israel (21 : i9, 20), and one of the 
places that fell to the tribe of Eeuben (Josh. 13 : 17). 
From this place which, though north of the 
Arnon, still perhaps remained in possession of 
Moab, Balaam could see one extremity of the 
Israelitish camp (ver. 41). 



Chap. 23. Balaam's first two dis- 
courses. 1-10. The first direction which Ba- 
laam gave to the king of Moab was that he should 
build seven altars in that place, and offer a 
bullock and a ram on each altar. All important 
undertakings in ancient times were preceded by 
sacrifices intended to gain the good-will of the 
gods. The number seven is a frequently occur- 
ring sacred number. It was sometimes em- 
ployed even by Gentiles in religious ceremonies 
connected with the quest for the inner truth of 
things. When ^neas consulted the Sybil he 
offered seven oxen and seven sheep (virgii, ^n., 
VI., 38, seq.). Balak did according to the seer's 
directions (ver. 2)^ and the two together made 
the prescribed sacrifice on each altar. In the 
LXX this act of offering is asserted only of 
Balak, just as in ver. 30, thus corresponding 
more closely to the expression " thy burnt offer- 
ing" (ver. 3) and " his burnt offering " (ver. 6) ; 
but Balaam claims the act of sacrificing as his 
own in ver. 4. Balak is directed to take his 
station by his burnt offering (ver. 3), perhaps 



Ch. XXIIL] 



NUMBERS 



95 



Lord will come to meet me : and whatsoever he 
sheweth me I will tell thee. And he went to an 
high place. 

4 And God met Balaam : and he said unto him, 
I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered 
upon every altar a bullock and a ram. 

5 And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, 
and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt 
speak. 

6 And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood 
by his burnt sacrifice, he, and all the princes of 
Moab. 

7 And he took up his parable, and said, Balak 
the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out 
of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse 
me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. 

8 How shall I carse, whom God hath not cursed? 
or how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not defied ? 

9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, and 
from the hills I behold him : lo, the people shall 
dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the 
nations. 



will go ; peradventure the Lord will come to 
meet me : and whatsoever he sheweth me I will 

4 tell thee. And he went to a bare height. And 
God met Balaam : and he said unto him., I have 
prepared thee seven altars, and I have offered 

5 up a bullock and a ram on every altar. And the 
Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said. 
Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak, 

6 And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by 
his burnt oft'ering, he, and all the princes of 

7 Moab. And he took up his parable, and said. 

From Aram hath Balak brought me. 

The king of Moab from the mountains of the 

East: 
Come, curse me Jacob, 
And come, defy Israel. 

8 How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed ? 
And how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not 

defied? 

9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, 
And from the hills I behold him : 

Lo, it is a people that dwell alone, 

And shall not be reckoned among the nations. 



for the purpose of guarding it as Abraham did 
on another occasion (Gen. 15 : 11), while the seer 
himself goes to see what Jehovah will show him. 
He is evidently seeking the fateful knowledge 
in omens or signs in nature or the sky (of. 24 : 1, 
which should read omens instead of enchant- 
ments), and for this purpose he goes to a hare 
height (see r. v.). It was the custom of Roman 
augurs also to carry on their observation of 
natural omens from exposed high places (cicero, 
De Off., III., 16) . While Balaam's ordinary method 
of pronouncing destiny was by throwing him- 
self into a passive or trance-like state and 
gathering impressions through suggestion (see 
on 22 : 8-21) J yet he was no doubt versed in all the 
fanciful lore of omens and signs derived from 
the appearances of nature. This device of con- 
sulting omens was perhaps adopted on the 
present occasion as more controllable and plastic 
than his ordinary method of trance or sur- 
render to impressions. In this latter state he 
knew that his utterances would be beyond his 
control (see 22 : 18) ; and the fact that he aban- 
doned the device of seeking omens when he 
found they were of no use (24 : 1) seems to in- 
dicate that he had recourse at first to omens in- 
stead of trance in the hope that, by keeping in 
his active mental state, he might steer his 
auguries into a curse instead of a blessing. 
Despite his premonition that Israel was blessed 
(22 : 12) J Balaam was making strenuous efforts 
to figure out a destiny for Israel in accordance 
with Balak's wishes. But once more, as on 
that former occasion when he had fairly set out 
(22 : 22, and note), Balaam was brought back to his 
primary intuition of the unyieldingness of the 
truth of things. God, Elohim, met him, 
Balaam (ver. 4), and as he reflected before the 
infinite Presence that he had builded the seven 
altars, i. e., the sacred number customary when 



parties ally themselves with inviolate truth 
(see Gen. 21 : 28-31), and had offered a bullock and 
a ram on every altar, the already disclosed truth 
(see 22 : 12) of God's purposc to blcss Israel came 
upon him with a commanding insistence which 
he dared not resist (ver. 5). With the conviction 
that his message was made up from Jehovah he 
went back to Balak standing with his princes 
by his burnt-offering (ver. 6), and broke into the 
rhythmic utterance which is the measured rap- 
ture of all impassioned and lofty thought (ver. 7). 
That discourse is interesting as a highly sub- 
jective expression of the mind or conscious- 
ness of the seer as swayed by his surroundings. 
He first recalls the position in which he finds 
himself, namely, engaged, at Balak's invita- 
tion, in the effort to curse and defy Israel (ver. 7), 
i. e., to feel horror or repugnance at his fate, and 
to excite the frenzy of defiant rage at his pres- 
ence. Then he expresses his feeling of the divine 
resistance which such effort encounters (ver. 8). 

" How shall I curse whom 'El hath not cursed? 
And how shall I menace whom Jehovah hath 
not menaced ? " 

There is no material, no stirring, for a feeling 
of horror in regard to a people so palpably 
well-fated in the sight of God as this people. 
Going on and ascribing his impression frankly 
to the marvelous view obtained from the top of 
the rocks, the prophet speaks as one especially 
struck with the separateness, the sublime 
uniqueness, of that wonderful people : 

" Behold ! a people dwelleth alone ; 
And among the nations doth not reckon 

itself! " (ver 9.) 

Now comes the prediction of the future ; and 
it is simply a vision of the characteristic Oriental 
blessing of immense populousness : 



96 



NUMBEHS 



[Ch. xxm. 



10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the 
number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die 
the death of the righteous, and let my last end be 
like his! 

11 And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou 
done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, 
and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. 

12 And he answered and said, Must I not take 
heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my 
mouth ? 

13 And Balak said unto him. Come, I pray thee, 
with me unto another place, from whence thou 
mayest see them : thou shalt see but the utmost 
part of them, and shalt not see them all : and curse 
me them from thence. 

14 And he brought him into the field of Zophim, 
to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and 
offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 



10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, 
Or number the fourth part of Israel? 
Let me die the death of the righteous, 
And let my last end be like his ! 

11 And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou 
done unto me? I took thee to curse mine ene- 
mies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them alto- 

12 gether. And he answered and said, Must I not 
take heed to speak that which the Lord putteth 

13 in my mouth ? And Balak said unto him. Come, 
I pray thee, with me unto another place, from 
whence thou mayest see them ; thou shalt see 
but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see 

14 them all : and curse me them from thence. And 
he took him into the field of Zophim, to the top 
of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up 



" Who hath counted the dust of Jacob, 
And the number — the fourth part of Israel ? " 

Finally, when it comes to pronouncing des- 
tiny, or throwing the whole wishing self into a 
fate-laden utterance — which is what cursing or 
blessing consists in — Balaam can conceive no 
personal fate so fervently to be longed for as 
just the glorious outcome which he perceives 
reserved for Israel's history : 

" Let my soul die the death of the upright ! 
And be my last end like his ! " (ver. lo.) 

The word translated righteous (□^,*1K^'' y'sha- 
rim, ver. 10), is perhaps a play on the poetic 
name of Israel, p'll?^^ Y'shurun (neut. 32:15; 
isa. 44 : 2, etc.). To the ancient Oriental mind, 
which had not risen to the idea of immortality 
in an unseen state as anything desirable, the 
symbol of all glorious or covetable destiny was 
a happy death. Beyond the gateway of death, 
in conceiving of a person's future, the early 
mind did not travel. Hence to wish for a death, 
even for one's own soul, like that of the right- 
eous was to wish for a similar glorious outcome 
or destiny conceived of in a generalized and 
massive way, the individual post-mortem exist- 
ence being left to the unrevealed and uninter- 
rogated mind of God. 

11-24. When Balak reproached Baalam at 
his first arrival it was for his reluctance to come 
to him, which seemed to imply contempt of his 
power to reward (22 : 37). Now he undertakes to 
assert the right of an employer, as if he owned 
Balaam's services: I took thee to curse mine 
enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed 
them altogether (ver. 11). He finds, however, 
that Balaam is in the grasp of a higher power 
(ver. 12). Come, I pray thee, with me 
unto another place (ver. 13). "Balak, in 
true heathen fashion, attributes the unfavorable 
result to external circumstances, and at the 
same time does not desist from the attempt, but 



proposes to help matters by a change of station- 
point" (Dillmann). Thou shalt see but 
the utmost part of them, and shalt not 
see them all. Considerable difficulty has 
been felt with this passage as it reads, on ac- 
count of the apparent identity of the conditions 
proposed with those in which Balaam is already 
placed (see 22 : 41). Ingeuious attempts have 
been made so to translate as to make the pas- 
sage in 22 : 41 describe a wide-open view, or 
else to make the passage here, rendered in the 
present tense, refer to what Balaam now sees at 
Bamoth-Baal, as a contrast to what Balak pro- 
poses to show him from the next station. It 
seems more natural to translate this passage as 
it is in the Authorized and Revised versions, 
and to suppose that, though from the place 
where the first altars were built only a restricted 
view of the people was obtainable (22 : 41), yet 
when Balaam went to his " bare height" (23 : 3) 
he gained a fuller survey. Certainly ver. 9, 
10 indicate that Balaam had a very impressive 
view of the Israelitish camp. Balak took him 
to the field of Zophim, or " Gazers," at the 
top, head, of Pisgah (ver. 14). It was some- 
where along this Nebo platform that Moses was 
finally brought for his dying view of the prom- 
ised land (Deut. 34 : 1). "Nebo and the neigh- 
boring hills were also the stations and altars of 
Balaam. Balak brought him from the Arnon, 
and first they took up their position at Bamoth- 
Baal, which must have lain back from the edge 
of the hills, for Balaam could see from it only 
the farther edge of Israel's camp in the plain 
below (22 : 41). The seer's second station was in 
the field of Zophim, or the Gazers, which is 
given as on 'the head of Pisgah' (23 : 14) ^ 
where seven altars were built. The third sta- 
tion was the top, head, of Peor, that look- 
eth toward, dow72 on, Jeshimon (ver. 28) — 
the same index as is given for Nebo itself, yet 
probably a point still nearer to the plain of 
Shittim. The places at which Balaam took his 



Ch. XXIII.] 



KUMBERS 



97 



15 And he said unto Balak, Stand here by the 
burnt offering, while I meet the Lord yonder. 

16 And the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in 
his mouth, and said, Go again unto Balak, and say 
thus. 

17 And when he came to him, behold, he stood 
by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with 
him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the 
Lord spoken? 

18 And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, 
Balak, and hear ; hearken unto me, thou son of 
Zippor : 

19 God is not a man, that he should lie ; neither 
the son of man, that he should repent: hath he 
said, and shall he not do it ? or hath he spoken, 
and shall he not make it good? 

20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless : 
and he hath blessed ; and I cannot reverse it, 

21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither 
hath he seen perverseness in Israel : the Lord his 
God is with him, and the shout of a king is among 
them. 



15 a bullock and a ram on every altar. And he 
said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt offer- 

16 ing, while I meet the Lord yonder. And the Lord 
m^et Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and 
said. Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou 

17 speak. And he came to him, and, lo, he stood 
by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab 
with him. And Balak said unto him. What hath 

18 the Lord spoken ? And he took up his parable, 
and said, 

Rise up, Balak, and hear ; 

Hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor : 

19 God is not a man, that he should lie ; 
Neither the son of man, that he should 

repent : 
Hath he said, and shall he not do it? 
Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it 

good? 

20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless : 
And he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. 

21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, 
Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel : 
The Lord his God is with him. 

And the shout of a king is among them. 



stand and looked for omens were all probably 
sanctuaries. The range is covered with the 
names of deity — Baal, Nebo, Peor. Nor could 
there be more suitable platforms for altars, nor 
more open posts for observing the stars or the 
passage of clouds, or the flight of birds across 
the great hollow of the 'Arabah. The field of 
Gazers was rightly named. To-day the hills 
have many ancient altars and circles of stones 
upon them" (Smith). 

The same preparation for the solemn act was 
made as before, and Balaam went by himself to 
"be met" (ver. is), "While on the first occasion 
it Avas said that " Elohim met Balaam," here it 
is "Jehovah" (ver. le), and this is not without 
its correspondence with the specific character 
of this second discourse which is founded more 
particularly on the known or revealed being of 
God as above human weakness and as in alli- 
ance with Israel, rather than on the general 
appearance and obvious thriftiness of the up- 
right nation. On his return the seer again finds 
Balak with his princes eagerly awaiting the 
result of the second trial. I give my own trans- 
lation of the discourse : 

"Kise, Balak, and hear; 
Give ear unto me, son of Zippor : 
Not a man is 'El, that he should lie. 
And the son of Adam, that he should repent. 
Hath he spoken, and will he not do ? 
And given the word, and will he not con- 
firm it? 
Behold, I received command to bless; 
And he hath blessed, and I may not reverse it. 
He hath not discerned folly in Jacob ; 
And hath not seen wrong in Israel. 
Jehovah his God is with him ; 
And the shout of a king is in him. 



G 



'El is bringing them from Egypt ; — 

His are like the movements of a wild ox. 

For there is no omen in Jacob, 

And no divination in Israel : 

According to the time it is spoken unto Jacob, 

And unto Israel, what 'El hath wrought. 

Behold a people — as a lion he rises ! 

And as a strong lion he lifts himself up ! 

He shall not lie down till he has devoured 

prey, 
And drunk the blood of the slain ! " 

This discourse difiers from the first in being 
more definitely laudatory, and more positively 
assertive of the divine dealings with Israel. The 
seer seems to forget all his limitations and rises 
to a sublime height of prophetic inspiration. 
In the former case he could not curse because 
God had not cursed ; here God, who does not lie 
nor repent like finite beings (ver. i9), has pos- 
itively blessed, and that irreversible act of God 
Balaam accepts as a command to him to bless 
(ver. 20). Following out more definitely the idea 
contained in the epithet " righteous " in the first 
discourse (ver. lo), Balaam asserts God's redeem- 
ing blindness to fault in Israel, and his alliance 
as Jehovah with him, which imparts a royal 
quality to the nation (ver. 21). The expression, 
" The shout of a king is in him," is a specimen 
of the magnificent Hebrew imagery which 
ought not to be disguised in translation. It in- 
terprets itself. If the psalmist felt, with regard 
to Jehovah in the more impressive phenomena 
of nature, that " in his temple everything saith. 
Glory ! " (ps. 29 : 9), the admiring seer could feel 
in this place that everything in Israel saith. 
Royalty! This translation of a nation from 
Egypt is an act of God, and it awakens in Ba- 
laam's mind the image of the genius of the 



98 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXIV. 



22 God brought them out of Egypt ; he hath as it 
were the strength of an unicorn. 

23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, 
neither is there any divination against Israel : ac- 
cording to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of 
Israel, What hath God wrought! 

2-4 Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, 
and lift up himself as a young lion : he shall not 
lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the 
blood of the slain. 

25 And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse 
them at all, nor bless them at all. 

26 But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, 
Told not I thee, saying, All that the Lord speaketh, 
that I must do? 

27 And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray 
thee, I will bring thee unto another place; per- 
adveuture it will please God that thou mayest 
curse me them from thence. 

28 And Balak brought Balaam unto the top of 
Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon. 

29 And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here 
seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks 
and seven rams. 

30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered 
a bullock and a ram on every altar. 

nation as like a mighty DS"), r'em, or wild ox 
(rer. 22). This couplet is repeated in the third 
discourse (24 : 8). And now as Balaam contem- 
plates Israel under the fostering care of Jehovah, 
he feels with self-disgust how utterly out of touch 
is all Israel's history, and all his inspired con- 
ception of the divine process of events, with the 
petty auguries and divinations of the heathen 
(ver. 23). Accordiiig to this time it shall be 
said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath 
God wrought ! ( See translation in the Notes. ) 
This seems to be a kind of objective definition of 
prophecy — that function which is the distinction 
of spiritual Israel, and which so gloriously con- 
trasts with the omen-seeking of those who have 
no revelation — as a sort of sympathy or commun- 
ion with Jehovah which keeps the run of the 
movements of his Spirit, and so comprehends 
the significance of God's working as it emerges 
out of the time.i We are reminded of the Sav- 
iour's saying to those who had grown out of 
alignment with God's Spirit : " Ye know how to 
discern the face of the heaven ; but ye cannot 
discern the signs of the times" (Matt, le : 3). 
Prophecy is essentially the perception of the 
divine philosophy of history while history is 
in the making. It is the discerning, at the time, 
of tvhat God hath wrought. This contrast be- 
tween Israel discovering the divine will through 
^prophets, of whom Moses was the type, and the 
surrounding nations who use auguries and prac- 
tise divination is strongly asserted and enjoined 
in Deut. 18 : 14, seq. Balaam ends his discourse 
by comparing the people of Israel to a strong 
lion which has become aroused, arguing from 
the very disposition of the king of beasts whom 



22 God bringeth them forth out of Egypt ; 

He hath as it were the strength of the wild-ox. 

23 Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob, 
Neither is there any divination with Israel : 
Now shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel, 
What hath God wrought! 

24 Behold, the people riseth up as a lioness, 
And as a lion doth he lift himself up : 

He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, 
And drink the blood of the slain. 

25 And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse 

26 them at all, nor bless them at all. But Balaam 
answered and said unto Balak, Told not I 
thee, saying, All that the Lord speaketh, that I 

27 must do? And Balak said unto Balaam, Come 
now, I will take thee unto another place ; per- 
adventure it will please God that thou mayest 

28 curse me them from thence. And Balak took 
Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh down 

29 upon the desert. And Balaam said unto Balak, 
Build me here seven altars, and prepare me 

30 here seven bullocks and seven rams. And Ba- 
lak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a 
bullock and a ram on every altar. 



he resembles that there must be bloodshed and 
conquest before he settles down (ver. 24). 

25-30, As Balak perceives that the current 
of vaticination is setting so strongly in the 
direction of blessing, he is anxious to stop the 
flow of it at this point. If he cannot have the 
curse, he will at least avoid having the actual 
blessing pronounced (ver. 25). Balaam has given 
an impassioned description of the theocratic 
felicity and the prowess of Israel, but the actual 
words of blessing, so much dreaded by the 
superstitious Moabite king, have not yet been 
uttered and do not appear until the end of the 
third discourse (24 : 9), But Balaam is in the 
current ; he must go on and say all that Jeho- 
vah has given him to say (ver. 20), Finding it 
inevitable that the drama must now be played 
through, Balak will at least try the experiment 
of another change of place. But he has now 
acquired some respect for God, if not a compre- 
hension of his character. Instead of ignoring 
the divine will and saying, as on the former 
occasion, "Curse me them from thence" (^er. 
13), he more modestly entertains the thought as 
a possibility, "Perhaps it will be right in the 
eyes of God that thou mayst curse me them from 
thence" (ver. 27). On the place to which he 
takes Balaam, see the quotation from Professor 
Smith in the preceding section. The customary 
preparation of altars and sacrifices is prescribed 
and furnished and Balaam makes ready for his 
third discourse. 



Chap. 24. The propheoies of Balaam. 
1-9. Balaam now desists from the attempt to 
find a divine oracle in omens. The word trans- 



1 " The Jew," says Renan, "thanks to a kind of prophetic sense which renders the Semite at times 
marvelously apt to see the great lines of the future, has made history enter ii^io religion." 



Ch. XXIV.] 



NUMBERS 



99 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



1 AND when Balaam saw that it pleased the 
Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, 
to seek for enchantments, but he set his face 
toward the wilderness. 

2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Is- 
rael abiding in his tents according to their tribes ; 
and the spirit of God came upon him. 

3 And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam 
the sou of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes 
are open hath said : 



lated enchantments (ver. i) probably means 
omens, or auguries, such as could be gathered 
from the fanciful and traditional interpretation 
of the appearances of nature. At each attempt 
Balaam has been "met," or "encountered," by 
the divine Presence and Idea (see 23 : 4, le), who 
has "put a word into his mouth," owing no 
part of its suggestion to the natural signs which 
Balaam hoped to make available. Omens and 
divination are found to be altogether out of 
place in Israel's history (23:23). Balaam is 
fully convinced of the divine determination to 
bless Israel, and accordingly he reverts to his 
more natural method of clairvoyant suggestion, 
on whose strong tide he had thought it not 
expedient to launch so long as there was hope 
of controlling his vaticinations in Balak's favor. 
Frankly, and wath all artifice of restricted view 
and cherishing of antagonistic interests laid 
aside, he sets his face toward the wilder- 
ness, where Israel lies encamped, and so sur- 
renders himself to the full impression of the 
scene. Balaam is now himself, and as he sees 
Israel dwelling according to their tribes ; 
the spirit of God (ver. 2)^ comes upon him so 
that he speaks by true prophetic inspiration. 
While on the previous occasions Jehovah has 
met him and, as it were, dragged his reluctant 
mental operations into eulogy, here he is borne 
along by "the spirit of God." It is not until 
one is his own real, unaffected self that "the 
spirit of God " can fully control him. Balaam's 
third mashal may be thus translated : 

** Utterance of Balaam son of Beor, 
And utterance of the man of the closed eye ; 
Utterance of the hearer of the words of 'El, 
Who beholdeth visions of Shaddai, 
Sinking, and having the eyes uncovered : 
How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ! 
Thy tabernacles, O Israel ! . 
Like valleys they are spread out ; 
Like gardens by the river ; 
Like aloes Jehovah hath planted ; 
Like cedars by the water. 
He runneth water from both his buckets ; 
And his seed is in abundance of water ; 



1 AND when Balaam saw that it pleased the 
Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at the other 
times, to meet with enchantments, but he set 

2 his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam 
lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling 
according to their tribes ; and the spirit of God 

3 came upon him. And he took up his parable, 
and said, 

Balaam the son of Beor saith, 

And the man whose eye was closed saith : 



And higher than Agag is his king ; 

And exalted is his kingdom. 

'El is bringing him from Egypt ; 

His are like the movements of a wild ox. 

He devoureth nations — his adversaries ; 

And their bones he gnaweth bare ; 

And with his arrows he pierceth right through. 

He couched, he lay down like a lion, 

And like a strong lion — ^who shall rouse him ? 

Blessed be every one that blesseth thee ! 

And cursed be every one that curseth thee ! " 

Ver. 3 and 4 are a sort of introduction or title 
in which the kind of discourse which follows is 
specified, and Balaam's psychical habit and his 
prophetic seizure are described at some length. 
His discourse is called a D5<J, n'um, utterance, 
or oracle, a term most frequently coupled with 
Jehovah and meaning a divine word or disclo- 
sure, as in Ps. 110 : 1, " Utterance of Jehovah to 
my lord." It is almost always translated by the 
verb " saith," or some tense of it, in our version. 
When it is coupled with the name of the human 
author, it means that person's deepest, most 
essential deliverance, very much like our word 
message used in the religious sense, as for in- 
stance, David's last words, " Utterance of David 
son of Jesse, and utterance of the man who was 
exalted on high " (2 sam. 23 : 1)^ or the " words of 
Agur son of Jakeh, the burden ; utterance of 
the plain man" (Prov. 30 : 1). In one place the 
profound impression produced by the wicked 
man's transgression on the sensitive heart is 
said to amount to a n'um, or utterance (ps. 36 : 1). 
The term came to be used by the prophets as a 
sort of mark of the prophetic style and preten- 
sion, the word utterance being as technical a 
term for the prophet's message as our word 
sermon is for the discourse of a preacher. Thus 
Jeremiah says, " Behold I am against the 
prophets, is the utterance of Jehovah, who 
' take ' their tongues and mutter * utterance ' " 
(jer. 23:31). Balaam is, therefore, introducing 
his discourse with the technical name for a 
prophet's disclosure. He designates himself as 
" the man of the closed eye." This I take to be 
a name for his clairvoyant power and talent, 



100 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXIV. 



4 He hath said, which heard the words of God, 
which saw the vision of the Almij^hty, I'alhng iyiio 
a trance, but having his eyes open : 

5 How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and tliy 
tabernacles, O Israel ! 

6 As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens 
by the river's side, as the trees of lign aloes which 
the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside 
the waters. 

7 He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and 
his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall 
be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be 
exalted. 

8 God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath 
as it were the strength of an unicorn : he shall eat 
up the nations his enemies, and shall break their 
bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. 

9 He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a 
great lion: who shall stir liim up? Blessed is he 



4 He saith, which heareth the words of God, 
Which seeth the vision of the Almighty, 
Falling down, and having his eyes open : 

5 How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, 
Thy tabernacles, O Israel ! 

6 As valleys are they spread forth. 
As gardens by the river side, 

As lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted, 
As cedar trees beside the waters. 

7 Water shall flow from his buckets, 
And his seed shall be in many waters, 
And his king shall be higher than Agag, 
And his kingdom shall be exalted. 

8 God bringeth him forth out of Egypt ; 

He hath as it were the strength of the wild-ox; 
He shall eat up the nations his adversaries, 
And shall break their bones in pieces, 
And smite them through with his arrows. 

9 He crouched, he lay down as a lion, 

And as a lioness ; who shall rouse him up? 



which is now resumed co7i amove and given full 
play after the overruled attempt to declare fate 
without it. The closure of the outward eye was 
the accompaniment of the unrestricted inner 
vision, and this latter is described in the last 
line of ver. 4, which in the Authorized version 
reads, falling into a trance, but having 
his eyes open. The words " into a trance " 
are inserted by the translators and are omitted 
in the Revised version. This omission was, no 
doubt, because the revisers regarded the words 
as an explanation rather than a rendering, be- 
longing to the commentator rather than to the 
translator. The "falling" mentioned in the 
Hebrew is not the reverent prostration of the 
person, astounded at the majesty of the vision 
(cf. Ezek. 1 : 28 ; 3 : 23, etc.)^ nor a sinking down like 
Saul's (1 Sam. 19 : 24), which was simply the ex- 
haustion and rigor of the spent dervish, but a 
surrender to the passive state, with its attendant 
relaxation of the muscles, which was the con- 
dition of the seer's clairvoyant vision. While 
in this state, he " hears the words of God " and 
"sees the vision of the Almighty," to which 
traits of the prophetic vision the last discourse 
adds, " Knows the knowledge of the Most 
High" (ver. 16). It is a genuine admission to 
prophetic knowledge which, as I have else- 
where observed (see on 11 : 23-35), is essentially 
seeing, or direct perception of divine things, 
vouchsafed to Balaam while in his passive state. 
The "trance," or "falling," is the individual 
trait belonging to Balaam's highly subjective 
temperament and is not necessarily an accom- 
paniment of prophecy in general. The imparta- 
tion of the divine knowledge through vision or 
dream, however, appears to have been the com- 
moner condition of prophecy in the older time, 
and this contrasted the ordinary prophets with 
prophets of the type of Moses (see 12 : 6, 7, and note), 
who was equal to the act of spiritual or divine 
perception in his normal state and who antici- 



pated prophecy of this saner type as the charac- 
teristic and permanent prophetism in Israel 
(Deut. 18 : 15). It was this highest type — this 
sane and normally wakeful prophecy, the theo- 
cratic interpretation of the times — which Ba- 
laam contemplated in his second discourse (see 
23 : 23) as the extremest contrast to the omens 
and divinations of the heathen and which char- 
acterized more especially the teachings of the 
greater prophets, whose discourses are left to us 
in writing, like Isaiah and Jeremiah. 

In the " utterance " or discourse which fol- 
lows, Balaam first indulges his imagination in 
the rapt picture of the people, arranged accord- 
ing to their tribal divisions like garden plots 

along a river (ver. 6, cf, Trpacnai TTpaaLoi ; Mark 6 : 40) 

and it suggests the thought of marvelous and 
glorious vegetative fecundity. In ver. 7 the 
figure advances from that of the irrigator 
carrying water in buckets suspended from the 
shoulder, "He runneth water from both his 

buckets " to that of the abundantly watered 

seedlings from the parent tree, "And his seed 

is in abundance of water " and finally to 

plain language in which the exaltation of his 
kingdom is compared to that of the most for- 
midable of the ancient Arab tribes, Amalek. 
Agag, with whom the king of Israel is com- 
pared, was the king of the Amelekites whom 
Saul conquered (i Sam. 15), and the name may 
perhaps have been a title belonging to the 
kings of Amalek in general, like Pharaoh as 
applied to the kings of Egypt. In the remain- 
der of the discourse, after repeating the figure 
of the wild ox from 23 : 22, Balaam's imagi- 
nation revels mostly in the comparison of Israel 
to a ferocious beast actually devouring in war, 
or sleeping with his boundless possibilities in 
abeyance and perilous to be roused (ver. 9). 
This last figure, that of the sleeping lion, is 
adapted from, or appropriated by the author 
of Jacob's dying prophecy (see Gen. 49 : 9). The 



Ch. XXIV.] 



NUMBEKS 



101 



that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth 
thee. 

10 And Balak's anger was kindled against Ba- 
laam, and he smote his hands together : and Balak 
said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine ene- 
mies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them 
these three times. 

11 Therefore now flee thou to thy place : I thought 
to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the 
Lord hath kept thee back from honour. 

12 And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also 
to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, 
saying, 

13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver 
and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment 
of the Lord, to do either good or bad of mine own 
mind ; but what the Lord saith, that will I speak ? 



Blessed be every one that blesseth thee. 
And cursed be every one that curseth thee. 

10 And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, 
and he smote his hands together : and Balak 
said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine 
enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether 

11 blessed them these three times. Therefore now 
flee thou to thy place : I thought to promote 
thee unto great honour: but, lo, the Lord hath 

12 kept thee back from honour. And Balaam said 
unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers 

13 which thou sentest unto me, saying. If Balak 
would give me his house full of silver and gold, 
I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord, to do 
either good or bad of mine own mind ; what the 



formula for blessing with which the discourse 
closes was also something of a stock expression, 
being used in the dying benediction of Isaac 

upon Esau (Gen. 27 : 29). 

Balak's emotions in consequence of Balaam's 
performances have passed through the stages 
of bewilderment (23 : 11) and defensive solicitude 
(ibid., ver. 25, 27), and have now risen to anger. 
In the intensest vexation he smites his hands 
together (ver. lo), and his dismissal of Balaam 
is not much like the courtliness of dignified 
Oriental etiquette. His command to Balaam 
to " break" or " flee " to his place (ver. ii) seems 
to imply a threat that worse will befall him if 
he is found lingering; and his assertion that 
Jehovah has kept him back from honor does 
not imply an acknowledgment of Jehovah as 
the controller of world events, but rather re- 
fers to him as Balaam's master whom he has 
chosen to his disadvantage. Balaam reminds 
him of what he told his messengers when they 
came to him the second time (22 : is), and then 
goes on, before leaving for his own country, 
to add a gratuitous prediction of what the glori- 
ous Israelitish nation shall do to Balak's people 
in the latter days (ver. u). This last or sup- 
plemental discourse, with its prophecy of the 
star and the sceptre, contains the principal 
data for the determination of the place of the 
Balaam discourses in Jewish history and litera- 
ture, and is accordingly the most interesting to 
the critics. It seems to come less naturally 
from the mouth of a soothsayer, or even a 
prophet, of the time of Moses than the other 
discourses, and to reflect quite unmistakably 
the historic situation and enthusiasms of David's 
or Solomon's time. While raising no question 
as to the historicity of the Balaam story in gen- 
eral, we may easily conjecture that the form of 
his discourses, which could hardly have been 
reported verbatim by an eye-witness, is more or 
less owing to the literary talent of the later 
authors who put the stories into shape. Their 
patriotic pride, which in the earlier discourses 



expressed the glory of Israel in such general 
pictures as could easily reveal themselves to a 
divinely aided seer of Moses' time, becomes 
more specific in this last discourse, and issues 
in a production in which the environment, 
which always plays its part in inspiration, 
seems characteristic of a later epoch. The dis- 
course is introduced by the same formula as the 
one at the beginning of the third mashal (cf. 
ver. 15, 16 with 3, 4), with One significant addition 
(ver. 16) — and knew the knowledge of the 
Most High — which, beyond describing a mor- 
tal's admission to the specific disclosures or 
visions of God, seems to profess a knowledge 
of the divine counsels like a participation in 
omniscience. With an attempt at a representa- 
tion of the original tenses we may render the 
discourse itself as follows : 

" I see him, but not now ; 
I survey him, but not nigh. 
There hath gone forth a star from Jacob ; 
And a scepter hath risen from Israel ; 
And it hath smitten through both sides of 

Moab, 
And destroyed all the sons of tumult. 
And Edom hath become a possession ; 
And Seir hath become a possession — his 

enemies ; 
And Israel is doing mightily. 
And one lordeth it from Jacob, 
And destroyeth the survivor from the city." 

As suggestive of a literary origin for this sup- 
plemental discourse, there is not only the ex- 
travagant claim to divine knoAvledge already 
referred to, but the opening lines, 

** I see him, but not now ; 
I survey him, but not nigh," 

seem more suggestive of the pose of the seer, 
the artistic color which a professional Avritor 
would employ, than the other discourses. The 
seer views the history of Israel as a panorainn 
passing before his eyes. It is to be remembered 



102 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXIV. 



14 Aud now, behold, I go unto my people : come 
therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people 
shall do to thy people in the latter days. 

15 And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam 
the son of Beor hath said> and the man whose eyes 
are open hath said : 

16 He hath said, which heard the words of God, 
and knew the knowledge of the most High, which 
saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, 
but having his eyes open : 



14 Lord speaketh, that will I speak? And now, be- 
hold, I go unto my people : come, and, I will ad- 
vertise thee what this people shall do to thy 

15 people in the latter days. And he took up his 
parable, and said, 

Balaam the son of Beor saith, 

And the man whose eye was closed saith : 

16 He saith, which heareth the words of God, 
And knoweth the knowledge of the Most High, 
Which seeth the vision of the Almighty, 
Falling down, and having his eyes open : 



that his sole professed theme is the relation or 
contact of Israel with Moab in the " futurity of 
the days " (ver. u). He represents the power of 
Moab as totally broken under the prowess of 
some monarch of Israel, and Edom as a con- 
quered possession entirely subject to the over- 
lordship of the Israelitish monarch who has 
hunted out and destroyed even his last refuge. 
If this were the vision of a man seeing prophet- 
ically into the far future we should expect it to 
conform to the final facts of Moab's history, in- 
stead of disclosing a vista arbitrarily cut ofi" at 
an epoch when Moab's history was not closed, 
nor had it even assumed its characteristic fea- 
tures. The nearest that Moab and Edom ever 
came to being both subjected to the victorious 
arms of an Israelitish monarch was in the time 

of David (2 Sam. 8 : 2, 12-14; 1 Kings 11 : 15, seq. : Ps. 

60 : 8, 9 and title) ; but this statc of things did not 
continue, both nations being afterward inde- 
pendent and more or less troublesome to Israel. 
*' The Moabite stone informs us that [the people 
of Moab] were again subdued by Omri, and 
oppressed by him and his successors for forty 
years. It records also the success of the revolt 
of Mesha, alluded to in 2 Kings 1 : 1, and 3 : 4, 
5. Henceforth the Moabites, though defeated 
by Joram (2 Kings 3 : 21, seq.), succecded in main- 
taining their independence, and in the reign of 
Joash appear (2 Kings 13 : 20) even to have waged 
oflfensive war against Israel. They were even- 
tually conquered by John Hyrcanus, 129 B. C, 
and merged in the Jewish State. So too, the 
Edomites revolted under Solomon (i Kings 11 : 14, 
eeq.) ; and under Joram again and more suc- 
cessfully (2 Kings 8 : 20) ; and though defeated by 
Amaziah (2 Kings 14 : 7) and by Uzziah (2 Kings 
14 : 22), were never again completely subjugated. 
Indeed, in the reign of Ahaz (2 Chron. 28 : 17) 
they invaded Judah" (Bible Comm.). The 
outlook of the seer, or writer, of this vision of 
Balaam therefore appears to be that of some one 
who shared in the enthusiasm of David's vic- 
tories and glory and expected his supremacy 
over Moab and Edom to be permanent. 

The most direct and rational way, therefore, 
of accounting for the peculiarities of this pre- 
diction regarding the fate of Moab and Edom 



seems to be by supposing that it took literary 
form in the age of David or Solomon. There 
remains the Messianic interpretation, which 
has had very general acceptance in the Chris- 
tian church and which has not been without its 
influence among the Jews. This consists in 
taking Moab and Edom as types of the enemies 
of God in general, and is based on the principle 
that as the prophecies were never permanently 
fulfilled in the literal sense, they must still 
await a progressive fulfilment in a spiritual 
sense. Of course this takes it for granted that 
Balaam uttered the prediction and that God 
used him to proclaim Messianic or eternally 
unfolding truth. The star and the sceptre are 
taken to refer to a line of kings of whom David 
was the type and Messiah the consummation. 
This interpretation would commend itself to the 
Jewish mind through the brilliancy of its fig- 
ures, and especially because it chimed in with 
the Jewish expectations of national aggrandize- 
ment through Messiah. Given a nation with 
such a fervent and inflammable anticipation of 
supremacy in the world, which is itself a phe- 
nomenon of immense significance in religious 
history, and any prediction of wide conquest 
and power need only be too extravagant for 
immediate literal fulfilment to be accepted as 
Messianic. The star was a not uncommon figure 
for a royal personage (isa. 14 : 12) and is used as 
a predicate of the risen Lord (Rev. 22 : le). It 
was a star seen in the East, Balaam's country, 
which led the Wise men to seek the new-born 
King of the Jews (Matt. 2 ; 1, 2), and the leader of 
the last rebellion of the Jews in Hadrian's time, 
perhaps trading on this very passage in Ba- 
laam's discourse, called himself £ar-Cochab, or 
" Son of the Star." The figure of the sceptre, 
interpretable as Messianic, is also found in 
Jacob's dying blessing (see Gen. 49 ; 10), that com- 
position which has already shown one parallel 
with the Balaam discourses (cf- ver. 9 with Gen. 49 : 9) 
and which in its final literary form is probably 
not far removed from them in time. This Mes- 
sianic interpretation has been an accepted one 
in the Christian church, especially in those ages 
when the church was disposed to magnify the 
marvelous and supernatural, on account of the 



Ch. XXIV.] 



NUMBEES 



103 



17 I shall see him, but not now : I shall behold 
him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of 
Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and 
shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the 
children of Sheth. 

18 And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall 
be a possession for his enemies ; and Israel shall do 
valiantly. 

19 Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have 
dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth 
of the city. 

20 And when he looked on Amalek, he took up 
his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the 
nations ; but his latter end shall be that he perish 
for ever. 

21 And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his 
parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace, and 
thou puttest thy nest in a rock. 



17 I see him, but not now : 

I behold him, but not nigh : 

There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, 

And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, 

And shall smite through the corners of Moab, 

And break down all the sons of tumult. 

18 And Edom shall be a possession, 

Seir also shall be a possession, which were his 

enemies ; 
While Israel doeth valiantly. 

19 And out of Jacob shall one have dominion. 
And shall destroy the remnant from the city. 

20 And he looked on Amalek, and took up his para- 
ble, and said, 

Amalek was the first of the nations ; 

But his latter end shall come to destruction. 

21 And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his 
parable, and said. 

Strong is thy dwelling place. 
And thy nest is set in the rock. 



church's fervent looking forward to its risen 
Lord's universal spiritual reign, though it must 
be admitted that the Old Testament predictions 
of violence and carnage in connection with 
Jewish royal supremacy can be applied to the 
mild sway and spread of Christianity only in 
an accommodated and highly spiritualized 
sense. There is nothing gained for Christian 
evidences by insisting on a Messianic interpre- 
tation for this passage. The more rational and 
defensible position is thus defined by Dr. Robert 
"Watson: "The oracle of Balaam refers to the 
virility and prospective dominance of Israel, as 
a nation favored by the Almighty and destined 
to be strong in battle. The range of the pre- 
diction is not nearly wide enough for any true 
anticipation of a Messiah gaining universal 
sway by virtue of redeeming love. It is becom- 
ing more and more necessary to set aside those 
interpretations which identify the Saviour of 
the world with one who smites and breaks down 
and destroys, who wields a sceptre after the 
manner of Oriental despots." 

The latter part of ver. 17 exhibits a remarka- 
ble similarity with Jeremiah's prophecy against 
Moab (Jer. 48 : 45), and indicates the custom of 
drawing on a common stock of phrases on the 
part of different prophets or writers. The term 
Sheth is probably not a proper name, but by 
the addition of one silent letter is taken by 
modern translators to mean noise, or tumult, as 
in R. V. The word is derived from the same 
verbal root as the term used by Jeremiah {loc. 
cit.), in the phrase translated tumultuous ones, or 
literally, sons of tumxilt. The word ti'anslated 
corners means two sides, or both sides, and as 
the Hebrew word is oftenest used of the sides of 
the head, it may perhaps best be translated tem- 
ples. The same word is used in the singular in 
Jeremiah. Again, the obscure word translated 
destroy, by the substitution of an almost ex- 
actly similar letter easily confounded by a tran- 



scriber, is changed into the exact word used by 
Jeremiah in the passage cited and translated 
crown of the head. Making these changes in the 
translation, according to the suggestion of Dill- 
mann, we find the parallelism with Jeremiah 
still more striking : 

" And it hath smitten through both temples of 
Moab, 
And the crown of the head of the sons of 
tumult." 

In consonance with the phrase sons of tumult, 
or pride, as applied to Moab, is the repeated 
indication among the prophets that pride was 
a highly characteristic trait of that nation (see 

Isa. 16 : 6 ; 25 : 11 ; Jer. 48 : 29 ; Zeph. 2 : 8, lO). 

20-25. These three brief prophecies are ob- 
scure, both on account of the lack of historical 
data and on account of the difficulties in the gram- 
matical construction. Amalek is designated as 
among the first of the nations (ver. 20), prob- 
ably in power and glory, as its king has already 
been referred to as a sort of symbol of royal great- 
ness (see ver. 7). The Amalekites were a Bedouin 
tribe descended from Esau (Gen. 36 : 21), living 
in the desert south of Canaan, who early op- 
posed Israel in their journey to the promised 
land (Kxod. 17 : 8, seq. ) and were therefore marked 
as at perpetual feud with Israel (ibid., le). After 
their defeat by Saul (1 sam. 15) and David (1 sam. 
27 : 8; 30 : 17), they declined more and more in 
importance until finally the remnant of them 
in Mount Seir were destroyed by the Simeonites 
at the time of Ilezekiah (i chrou. 4 : 42, 43). The 
prophecy regarding the Kenites is very ob- 
scure on account of the difficulty of translating 
the Hebrew connective particles used in it. It 
seems a more probable interpretation, however, 
to read that the Kenite, or more literally 
Kain, shall not be wasted (ver. 22) than to 
read as the translators liave rendered in the 
Authorized and Revised versions. I venture 



104 



NUMBEES 



[Ch. XXY 



22 Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until 
Asshur sliall carry thee awav captive. 

23 And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, 
•who shall live when God doerh this ! 

24 And ships shijU come from the coast of Chlttim, 
and shall aiiiict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and 
he also shall perish, for ever. 

25 And Balaam rose up, and went and returned 
to his place : and Balak also went his way. 



22 Nevertheless Kain shall be wasted. 

Until Asshur shall carry thee away captive. 

23 And he took up his parable, and said. 

Alas, who shall live when God doeth this ? 

24 But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim. 
And they shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict 

Eber, 
And he also shall come to destruction. 
2-5 And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to 
his place : and Balak also went his way. 



the following translation as the nearest repre- 
sentation of the Hebrew : 

" Lasting be thine abode ; 
And fixed, thy nest on the rock ; 
For [God requite it] if Kain shall be for 

desTruction, 
Till what time A-Sshnr shall carry thee away 

captive." 

The particle which I have translated if in the 
third line is often used in a sort of abbreviated 
form of oath as equivalent to a strong negative, 
as in Ps. 95 : 11: "Wherefore I sware in my 
wrath, if they shall enter into my rest." I have 
chosen to insen an oath form in brackets in 
order to convey the feeling of a strong divine 
asseveration that their security should hist trntil 
the final captivity of the land. This makes the 
prophecy regarding "the Kenites" a friendly 
one and a contrast, or rhetorical ofi"5et, to the 
one on Amalek. "The Kenites" were a tribe 
of Midianitish origin (w : 29) who were related 
to Moses by marriage (Jndg. 1 : le) and who, in 
return for their assistance in the wilderness, 
were offered a share in Israel's blessings (10 : 32). 
They seem always to have remained friendly 
neighbors to Israel, living a sort of isolated or 
close-nested life which never fully coalesced 
with that of Israel ( Judg. 1 : le : 1 Saa. is : 6) . As for 
the prophecy that Asshur shall carry thee 
away captive (■^er. 22)^ this may refer to the 
northern branch of the tribe which settled near 
Kedesh of Xaphtali (Judg. 4 : 11) and was possi- 
bly involved in the early captivity of the north- 
em kingdom tinder Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings 15 : 
29) ; but it is more probable that the captivity 
apprehended was the general captivity of Israel 
and Judah which, as it was begun by Assyria, 
would present itself prophetically as an Assyr- 
ian captivity, even though it reached its final 
accomplishment under the Babylonians. Ba- 
laam's last 77ia^kal, or parable {^er. 23, 24), can 
hardly, with our present knowledge, be inter- 
preted in closer detail than as expressing the 
apprehension that, after all, the powers that 
should finally prove superior to the formidable 
Eastern nations were those that would come 
in ships from the side of Kittim; i. e., fi-om 



Cyprus-way — meaning the European powers 
in general. Asshur and Eber are the names 
of two prominent descendants of Shem (G«a- 10 : 
22, 34) J the latter being the one who gave their 
distinctive name to the Hebrews. "Eber" is 
here used probably not of the descendants of 
Abraham, nor of the western Shemites as dis- 
tinguished from the eastern Shemites, but rather 
of the nations beyond the Euphrates in general, 
except the Assyrians, which laner are comprised 
under the term "Asshur." Perhaps Alexan- 
der's conquest of Persia, which is called Assyria 
in Ezra 6 : 22, may be taken as a fcdfilment of 
this prophecy (see 1 Mace. 1:1). The prophecy 
ends, not with the cheering prospect of an ever- 
lasting kingdom established, but with the going 
out of the vista in successive change and ruin : 
Me also — I. e., perhaps the power from beyond 
Cyprus — shall come to destruction. 

Finally it is related that Balaam arose and 
returned to his place ('^er. 25), but it has been 
noted, with some subtilty, that the form of ex- 
pression is not that tised of a person acttially 
arriving at his place, but rather of one setting 
out on his way thither, thus making recon- 
cilement with chap. 31 : 5 ; Josh. 13 : 22 not 
altogether impossible. 



Chap. 25. Idolatey and immobauty 
ATSBmxrM. Jehovah's PEOMiSE TO Pbxnt:- 
HAS. The principal part of this chapter, the 
portion from ver. 6 to the end, appears to belong 
to the narrative of P, and relates the events 
which were the motive for the war against the 
Mldianites, of which we have an accotmt in 
chap. 31. According to this narrative it was 
the Alidianites who seduced the children of Is- 
rael into immorality, the most notable offender 
being the daughter of one of their chiefs. The 
crime of the Israeli tish prince, who was caught 
in the act of adultery with her, was avenged 
by Phinehas, who slew both of the offenders 
and thus stayed the ravages of a plague not 
previously mentioned, but which had already 
brought the congregation to the tent of meeting 
in penitence. It is thought by critics that the 
beginning of this priestly narrative, which may 
have included some account of the treacherous 



Ch. XXV.] 



NUMBERS 



105 



CHAPTER XXV. 



1 AND Israel abode in Shittim, and the people 
began to commit whoredom with the daughters of 
Moab. 

2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices 
of their gods : and the people did eat, and bowed 
down to their gods. 

3 And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor : and 
the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 

4 And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the 
heads of the people, and hang them up before the 
Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the 
Lord may be turned away from Israel. 

5 And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye 
every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor. 

6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel came 
and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman 
in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the 
congregation of the children of israel, who were 
weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the 
congregation. 



1 AND Israel abode in Shittim, and the people 
began to commit whoredom with the daughters 

2 of Moab: for they called the people unto the 
sacrifices of their gods ; and the people did eat, 

3 and bowed down to their gods. And Israel 
joined himself unto Baal-peor : and the anger of 

4 the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the 
Lord said unto Moses, Take all the chiefs of the 
people, and hang them up unto the Lord before 
the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may 

5 turn away from Israel. And Moses said unto the 
judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that 

6 have joined themselves unto Baal-peor. And, 
behold, one of the children of Israel came and 
brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman 
in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the 
congregation of the children of Israel, while 
they were weeping at the door of the tent of 



counsel of Balaam, referred to in 31 : 16, has 
been omitted in favor of JE's account which 
comprises ver. 1-5. According to this latter 
account the temptation of the children of Israel 
to immorality came through the daughters of 
Moab, and the impurity was connected with 
idolatrous worship. The being "yoked " to the 
service of a false god, which appears to have 
been the form of sin most thought of in this 
account, was to be avenged by summary and 
wholesale slaughter for which the chiefs were 
called on to volunteer as executioners. 

1-5, Israel abode in Shittim. This was 
the northern limit of the Israelitish camp, the 
name being an abbreviation for Ahel-sMttim, 
"Acacia-meadow" (see 33 : 49). It was in the 
plains of Moab along the banks of the Jordan 
nearly opposite Jericho (see 22 : 1). The people 
were invited by the w'omen to the sacrificial 
feasts of the local gods, especially the Baal 
or "lord" of Peor (ver. 3). His worship ap- 
pears to have been of a licentious character ; 
and the localizing of his cult in this place ac- 
cords with the history of the neighboring cities 
of the Plain (Gen. 19 : 4-11) and with the origin of 
Moab (ibid., 30-38). Somc of the ancient gods 
represented the reproductive powers of nature, 
and their ritual embodied a sort of licensed 
prostitution. This Baal of Peor may have been 
that sort of deity. Israel could hardly partici- 
pate in the people's feasts without bowing down 
to their gods and thus becoming identified or 
joined with them. This appears to have been 
regarded as the real center of their guilt and 
the occasion of the pestilence which was found 

raging among them (ver. 3, 5 ; Ps. lOe : 28 ; Hosea 9 : 

10; Eev. 2 : 14). It is a principle of religious 
thought that those who eat of the sacrifices 
have communion with the altar (i Cor. lo : 
18). Balaam's advice which, according to P's 



account, was the suggestion resulting in this 
heathenish enticement (si : i6), was no doubt 
intended to commit the Israelites to a commun- 
ion with idolatrous practices, and thus alien- 
ate the divine favor and protection by awaken- 
ing the jealous anger of Jehovah. The com- 
mand in ver. 4 is very misleading in the Author- 
ized version, and indeed in any literal render- 
ing, on account of the obscurity of the pronoun 
them which appears without antecedent. The 
meaning is : " Take unto thee all the chiefs of 
the people and hang up the offenders unto Jeho- 
vah before the sun," i. e., publicly (cf- 2 sam. 12 : 
12). These chiefs of the people, who are called 
judges in ver. 5, were to act as executioners, 
each one slaying "his men," i. e., those who 
belonged to his tribe or division of the congre- 
gation. After they were slain the bodies would 
be publicly exposed by impaling or fastening 

to a cross (cf. Deut. 21 : 23 ; 2 Sam. 21 : 6, 8-10). 

6-9. This paragraph and the rest of the chap- 
ter seems to contain a slightly variant account 
which in some former setting had a difierent or 
more circumstantial introduction than ver. 1-5. 
The children of Israel are represented as weep- 
ing at the door of the tent of meeting (ver. e), 
though it is not specified why they were thus 
assembled. We may assume that it was in peni- 
tence on account of the anger of Jehovah (see 
ver. 3). "While the people were thus engaged a 
prominent man of the children of Israel brought 
near to his brethren the Midianitish woman 
— perhaps the one mentioned in some former in- 
troduction — with the utmost impudence and 
publicity, and proceeded to take her to the 
'^'^'D, qubbah, or women's apartment of his tent. 
This act hardly looks like the shameless inde- 
cency of idolatrous or religious sex- worship, but 
more like a high-handed act of adultery or 
of alien marriage. Whatever the nature of the 



106 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXV. 



7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son | 
of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among 
the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand ; 

8 And he went after the man of Israel into the 
tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of 
Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the 
plague was stayed from the children of Israel. 

9 And those that died in the plague were twenty 
and four thousand. 

10 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron 
the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the 
children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake 
among them, that I consumed not the children of 
Israel in my jealousy. 

12 Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my 
covenant of i)eace : 

13 And he shall have it, and his seed after him, 
even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood ; 



7 meeting. And when Phinehas, the son of Ele- 
azar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose 
up from the midst of the congregation, and took 

8 a spear in his hand ; and he went after the man 
of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of 
them through, the man of Israel, and the woman 
through her belly. So the plague was stayed 

9 from the children of Israel. And those that d'ied 
by the plague were twenty and four thousand. 

10 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron 
the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the 
children of Israel, in that he was jea'lous with 
my jealousy among them, so that I consumed 
not the children of Israel in my jealousy. 

12 Wherefore say. Behold, I give unto him my 

13 covenant of -pesLce : and it shall be unto him, 
and to his seed after him, the covenant of an 
everlasting priesthood ; because he was jealous 



act, it was at least a crime which aroused the 
burning indignation of Phinehas, the high 
priest's son, and made him jealous zoith Jeho- 
vah's jealousy (see yer. 11). Arming himself with 
a spear, he followed the guilty couple into 
the alcove or arched private apartment of the 
tent (ver. 8) and killed them both in the adulter- 
ous act. As a result of this vindication of Jeho- 
vah's honor it is said that " the plague," which 
has not before been mentioned, "was stayed," 
Perhaps the expression the anger of Jeho- 
vah Avas kindled against Israel (^er. 3) 
may be taken as a way of saying that the plague 
had broken out. Certainly some manifestation 
of Jehovah's displeasure had called out meas- 
ures for averting it (^er. 4), and a penitential 
gathering at the tent of meeting (ver. e). The 
number stated to have died by the plague was 
twenty-four thousand (ver. 9). This is one thou- 
sand more than Paul gives in his reference to 
this event (1 Cor. 10 : s). It is thought that the 
apostle followed the Jewish tradition according 
to which one thousand of the twenty-four thou- 
sand were slain by their brethren according to 
the orders of Moses in ver. 5. 

10-15. Along with the gratifying signs that 
the plague was checked, there came to Moses a 
conviction which amounted to the "word of 
Jehovah " that the act of Phinehas was the occa- 
sion of the respite. It is his disposition rather 
than his act which is emphasized. He turned 
away Jehovah's wrath from the children of Israel 
because he loas jealous with my jealousy (^er. 11). 
This does not mean simply jealous for Jeho- 
vah, but having Jehovah's actual feeling and 
exercising it on the offenders. The wrath of 
Jehovah is thought of as diffused, as it were, 
and making the whole climate or atmosphere 
pestilential, until Phinehas concentrated and 
embodied it in his own person and discharged 
it like an electric bolt on a selected object. 
In ver. 13 this act is called making atonement 



for the children of Israel ; and it is worth 
while to notice what idea underlies the concep- 
tion of atonement in this place. Atonement 
here seems to be an act of divine judgment 
launched upon especially conspicuous offenders 
in such a way as to make it exemplary and so 
salutary to the great bulk of the people. The 
ones who suffer are the sinners who, by their 
very conspicuousness, become types; and the 
one who makes atonement is the person who 
embodies Jehovah's disposition ; and the atone- 
ment for the people consists in so disclosing the 
ethical aspect of the divine visitation as to dis- 
charge its intended function at once and relieve 
the multitude. It is the true act of a priest, 
very seldom perfectly performed by a human 
being, so to embody the divine feeling in an act 
of retribution or absolution as to be an agent 
for God. This is the act which is contemplated 
by our Lord when he says : " What things so- 
ever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven ; and what things soever ye shall loose 
on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt, is : 

18 ; cf. 16 : 19 ; John 20 : 23). In Ps. 106 : 30 PhiuC- 

has' act of atonement is called " executing judg- 
ment." The late Eev. F. W. Eobertson relates 
how on one occasion in his own experience he 
found his whole being going out against a pecu- 
liarly dastardly miscreant in such a pure and 
unselfish current of indignation that he seemed 
to be borne along supernaturally, and felt sol- 
emnly sure that he was pronouncing the divine 
sentence against the sinner. 

Having thus proven himself morally endowed 
for a righteous priesthood, Phinehas was as- 
sured of Jehovah's covenant of peace (^er. 
12). His outburst of divine indignation was 
really an act of peace-making which at least 
showed that he himself was at peace, or at 
one, with the mind of God. This should be, 
moreover, to him and to his posterity, the 
covenant of an everlasting priesthood, 



Ch. XXVI.] 



NUMBERS 



107 



because he was zealous for his God, and made an 
atonement for the children of Israel. 

14 Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, 
even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, 
was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house 
among the Simeonites. 

15 And the name of the Midianitish woman that 
was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur ; he was 
head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian. 

16 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

17 Vex the Midianites, and smite them : 

18 For they vex you with their wiles, wherewith 
they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and 
in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of 
Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of 
the plague for Peor's sake. 



for his God, and made atonement for the chil- 

14 dren of Israel. Now the name of the man of 
Israel that was slain, who was slain with the 
Midianitish woman, was Zimrl, the son of Salu, 
a prince of a fathers' house among the Simeon- 

15 ites. And the name of the Midianitish woman 
that was slaiu was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur ; 
he was head of the people of a fathers' house in 
Midian. 

16 And the Lord spake unto Moses, say- 

17 ing. Vex the Midianites, and smite them : 

18 for they vex you with their wiles, wherewith 
they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, 
and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the 
prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain 
on the day of the plague in the matter of Peer. 



CHAPTER XXVI 



1 AND it came to pass after the plague, that the 
Lord spake unto Moses and unto Elcazar the son of 
Aaron the priest, saying, 



1 AND it came to pass after the plague, that the 
Lord spake unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son 



priesthood of eternity (ver. 13). It appears from 
the history that the high-priesthood was per- 
petuated in the line of Phinehas, with a brief 
exception in the time immediately succeed- 
ing Eli, during the whole Jewish monarchy, 
and until the Jewish State was gradually dis- 
solved through the tyranny of Herod and his 

successors ( see Judg. 20 : 28 ; 1 Sam. 14 : 3 ; 22 : 9, 20 ; 2 

Sam. 8 : 17; 1 Kings 2 : 27, 35). The word eternity 
here, if the promise is to be held as being ful- 
filled, must mean simply lasting as long as the 
priesthood is perpetuated in the family of 
Aaron ; but there is a sense in which Phinehas 
may be said by his embodying Jehovah's dispo- 
sition to have realized what priesthood means 
in its eternal or elemental signification. 

This emphatic divine approval of a private 
person's zeal and promptness in taking the law 
into his own hands seems to be an authorization, 
in exceptional circumstances, of mob or lynch 
law. Indeed, " upon this act of Phinehas, and 
the similar examples of Samuel (i Sam. 15 : 33) 
and Mattathias (1 Mace. 2 : 24) the later Jews 
erected the so-called * zealot right,' jus zealot- 
arum, according to which any one, even though 
not qualified by his official position, possessed 
the right, in cases of any daring contempt 
of the theocratic institutions, or any daring 
violation of the honor of God, to proceed with 
vengeance against the criminals" (Keil). We 
may say, however, that such exceptional up- 
surgings of elemental divine wrath are not 
occurrences which can be legitimized by any 
verbal formulation of law or citation of eases. 
Mob law, which is essentially anarchy, is so 
contradictory to the very nature of society that 
it cannot safely be recognized in any civilized 
State. The awful fact remains, nevertheless, 
that where the organized forces of law and 
order are weak or corrupt, or the means for a 
sufficiently swift legitimate vengeance are not 



obtainable, an exceptionally atrocious crime 
will now and then call forth a demand and im- 
pulse for vengeance which is like an irresistible 
divine rage surging up from the very depths of 
human nature. 

The persons who fell under the stroke of the 
zealous Phinehas were of prominence and influ- 
ence. It was unmistakably a crime in high life. 
The father of the Midianitish princess was not 
only a head of the people of a fathers' 
house ( ver. 15, R. V. ), but he is mentioned in 31 : 8 
as one of the five kings of Midian slain in the 
battle which this incident provoked. 

16-18. The directions given in this section are 
carried out in chap. 31. Just as the Amalekites, 
the first warlike opposers of Israel in his strike for 
a better life, were to be held as perpetual enemies 
(Exod. 17 : 16), SO the Midiauitcs, Israel's insidious 
tempters, despite their friendly exterior, were 
to be fought against, and so distinctly pointed 
out to the people as foes. There is no attempt 
to oppose guile with guile. It is no case where 
guile has any leverage or resisting power. There 
are some temptations which cannot be out- 
witted ; they must be hated and risen above. 
The first requisite, therefore, in rendering the 
seductive Midianites innocuous to the nation 
was to bring them out into the open and exhibit 
them as deadly enemies. The latter part of 
ver, 18 appears to be a rather awkward addition 
"intended to make room for chap. 31. The re- 
dactional character of the addition appears 
plainly in the attempt to connect * the matter 
of Peor, and the matter of Cozbi,' which really 
have no connection" (Bacon). 



Chap. 26. The second census op Israel. 
This and the following chapters, to and includ- 
ing chap. 31, are all of a statistical and legisla- 
tive character, and belong to P. 1-4. It came 
to pass after the plague (ver. i). This phrase 



108 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXVI. 



2 Take the sum of all the congregation of the 
children of Israel, from twenty years old and up- 
ward, throughout their fathers' "house, all that are 
able to go to war in Israel. 

3 Aud Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with 
them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, 
saying, 

4 Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old 
and upward ; as the Lord commanded Moses and 
the children of Israel, which went forth out of ttie 
land of Egypt. 

5 Reuben, the eldest son of Israel: the children 
of Reuben ; Hanoch, of ivhom cometh the family of 
the Hanochites : of Pallu, the family of the Fal- 
luites : 

6 Of Hezron, the family of the Hezronit€s: of 
Carmi, the family of the Carmites. 

7 These are the families of the Reubenites : and 
they that were numbered of them were forty and 
three thousand and seven hundred and thirty. 



2 of Aaron the priest, saying, Take the sum of all 
the congregation of the children of Israel, from 
twenty years old and upward, by their fathers' 
houses, all that are able to go forth to war in 

3 Israel. And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake 
with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan 

4 at Jericho, saying, Take the sum of the people, from 
twenty years old and upward ; as the Lord com- 
manded Moses and the children of Israel, which 
came forth out of the land of Egypt. 

5 Reuben, the firstborn of Israel : the sons of 
Reuben ; of Hanoch. the family of the Hanoch- 

6 ites : of Pallu, the family of the Palluites : of 
Hezron, the family of the Hezronites : of Carmi, 

7 the family of the Carmites. These are the fam- 
ilies of the Reubenites : and they that were 
numbered of them were fortT and three thou- 



in the Hebrew Bibles is appended to the last 
chapter, but it evidently belongs here. It gives 
the approximate time of the numbering and, by 
mentioning the plague, intimates the principal 
cause for the marked decrease in numbers found 
in some of the tribes. As in the census at Sinai 
(chap. 1), the numbering is of those above twenty- 
years of age (^er. 2) J and is intended to determine 
the militaiy strength of the nation. This chap- 
ter also adds the list of names of the heads of 
families in the tribes as a basis for the division 
of the land which they are soon to occupy (•^er. 
53, 54), The numbers may be compared with 
those in chap. 1, the names with those in the 
list of grandchildren and great-grandchildren 
of Jacob in Gen. 46, with which they very 
nearly correspond. A table of the descendants 
of Israel through the tribes of Eeuben, Simeon, 
and Levi is also found in Exod. 6 : 14-25 ; and 
in 1 Chron. 2 to 8 more extended lists of all the 
tribes brought down to a late date are inserted. 
Ver. 3 and 4 are somewhat obscure in their 
grammatical features, indicating some corrup- 
tion in the text. A whole clause has to be in- 
serted by the translators at the beginning of ver. 
4 to complete the sense, as is indicated by the 
italics. Perhaps the last phrase of ver. 4, and 
the children of Israel which went forth 
out of the land of Egypt, is to be taken as 
the title of what follows, as in the Septuagint, 
instead of the object of the verb commanded, 
which latter construction has not the mark of 
the objective case to justify it in the Hebrew. 

5-51. These footings represent the number of 
the new generation who survive to take the place 
of those who were sentenced to die in the wilder- 
ness. The time-division which, according to 
the Deuteronomist, marks the passing away of 
the old generation and the exclusive dominance 
of the new is the period of the crossing of the 

brook Zered (Dent. 2 : 13-15 ; cf. Sxunh. 21 : 12). With 

the exception of the plague (25 : 9) all the mis- 



haps which had their effect in diminishing the 
number of the people, such as the destroying of 
the company of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram 
(16 : 52, 35), and the wasting of the multitude 
through the bites of the sei-pents (21 : 6), occurred 
before this time. Of course, some of the victims 
of these visitations were undoubtedly of the old 
generation and some of the new ; but all these 
causes of diminution were insignificant compared 
with the plague which took off" twenty-four thou- 
sand at a stroke. The numbers of those enumer- 
ated at Sinai (chap. 1) and those counted up in 
the plains of Moab may best be compared in a 
tabular summary : 

In 
At Sinai Arboth-Moab 



Eeuben, 


46,500 


43,730 


Simeon, 


59,300 


22,200 


Gad, 


45,650 


40,500 


Judah, 


74,600 


76,500 


Issachar, 


54,400 


64,300 


Zebulun, 


57,400 


60,500 


Ephraim , 


40,500 


32,500 


Manasseh, 


32,200 


52,700 


Benjamin, 


35,400 


45,600 


Dan, 


62,700 


64,400 


Asher, 


41,500 


53,400 


Naphtali, 


53,400 


45,400 



The ti'ibes are placed in the same order in 
this chapter as in chap. 1, excepting that here 
Manasseh, wliich has outstripped Ephraim in 
point of numbei"s, is placed before that tribe. 
The first three tribes, belonging to the camp of 
Eeuben, have all suffered diminution. A sort of 
general sullenness, reflected in the sentiments 
of Dathan and Abiram (16 : 12-15), seems to have 
pervaded the tribe of the firstborn, and this 
may have spread more or less to the whole camp 
of which Eeuben was the head, and so contrib- 
uted to bring on these people their full share of 
the judgment of the plague. Besides, the tribe 



Ch. XXVI.] 



NUMBERS 



109 



8 And the sons of Pallu ; Eliab. 

9 And the sons of Eliab ; Nemuel, and Dathan, 
and Abiram. This is that Dathan and Abiram, ivhich 
were famous in the congregation, who strove against 
Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, 
when they strove against the Lord : 

10 And the earth opened her mouth, and swal- 
lowed them up together with Korah, when that 
company died, what time the fire devoured two hun- 
dred and fifty men : and they became a sign. 

11 Notwithstanding the children of Korah died 
not. 

12 The sons of Simeon after their families: of 
Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites : of Jamin, 
the family of the Jaminites : of Jachin, the family 
of the Jachinites : 

13 Of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites : of Shaul, 
the family of the Shaulites. 

14 These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty 
and two thousand and two hundred. 

15 The children of Gad after their families: of 
Zephon, the family of the Zephonites : of Haggi, 
the family of the Haggites : of Shuni, the family of 
the Shunites : 

16 Of Ozni, the family of the Oznites : of Eri, the 
family of the Erites: 

17 Of Arod, the family of the Arodites : of Areli, 
the family of the Arelites. 

18 These are the families of the children of Gad 
according to those that were numbered of them, 
forty thousand, and five hundred. 

19 The sous of Jadah luere Er and Onan : and Er 
and Onan died in the land of Canaan. 

20 And the sons of Judah after their families 
were; of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites : of 
Pharez, the family of the Pharzites : of Zerah, the 
family of the Zarhites. 

21 And the sons of Pharez were ; of Hezron, the 
family of the Hezronites : of Hamul, the family of 
the Hamulites. 

22 These are the families of Judah according to 
those that were numbered of them, threescore and 
sixteen thousand and five hundred. 

23 Of the sons of Issachar after their families : of 
Tola, the family of the Tolaites : of Pua, the family 
of the Punites : 



8 sand and seven hundred and thirty. And the 

9 sons of Pallu ; Eliab. And tiie sons of Eliab ; 
Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. These are 
that Dathan and Abiram, which were called of 
the congregation, who strove against Moses and 
against Aaron in the company of Korah, when 

10 they strove against the Lord : and the earth 
opened her mouth, and swallowed them up 
together with Korah, when that company died ; 
wtiat time the fire devoured two hundred and 

11 fifty men, and they became a sign. Notwith- 
standing the sons of Korah died not. 

12 The sons of Simeon after their families: of 
Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites : of Jamin, 
the family of the Jaminites : of Jachin, the fam- 

13 ily of the Jachinites : of Zerah, the family of the 
Zerahites : of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites. 

14 These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty 
and two thousand and two hundred. 

15 The sons of Gad after their families : of Zephon, 
the family of the Zephonites : of Haggai, the 
family of the Haggites : of Shuni, the family of 

16 the Shunites : of Ozni, the family of the Oznites : 

17 of Eri, the family of the Erites: of Arod, the 
family of the Arodites : of Areli, the family of 

18 the Arelites. These are the families of the sons 
of Gad according to those that were numbered 
of them, forty thousand and five hundred. 

19 The sons of Judah, Er and Onan : and Er and 

20 Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons 
of Judah after their families were ; of Shelah, 
the family of the Shelanites : of Perez, the fam- 
ily of the Perezites : of Zerah, the family of the 

21 Zerahites. And the sons of Perez were ; of Hez- 
ron, the family of the Hezronites : of Hamul, 

22 the family of the Hamulites. These are the 
families of Judah according to those that were 
numbered of them, threescore and sixteen thou- 
sand and five hundred. 

23 The sons of Issachar after their families : of 
Tola, the family of the Tolaites : of Puvah, the 



of Simeon, whose diminution is most extraordi- 
nary, contained as one of its chiefs that very 
Zimri who was slain by Phinehas at the time of 
the plague (25 : 14)^ and his bold transgression 
may have been one of the accompaniments of a 
wide-spread and insolent defection in his tribe. 
The numbering seems to have been conducted 
according to some such system of round num- 
bers as was followed in chap. 1, as the footings 
of all the tribes show even hundreds except that 
of Reuben which strangely comes out with an 
odd thirty, as Gad in the first numbering pre- 
sented an odd fifty. If the plague had not 
occurred to diminish the number by twenty-four 
thousand there would have appeared an increase 
over the former generation of twenty-two thous- 
and one hundred and eighty. 

The line of Dathan and Abiram (ver. 9, 10) 
evidently came to an end at the time of Korah's 
rebellion, as their families were involved in 
their destruction (16 : 32, 33) ^ thus leaving Eliab, 
and his father Pallu indeed, with only Nemuel 
to perpetuate their stock (ver. 8, 9). It is ex- 
pressly mentioned, however, that the sons of 
Korah the Levite died not (ver. 11). In fact 



these descendants of that influential rebel be- 
came the progenitors of some of the illustrious 
men of Israel, distinguished especially in con- 
nection with public worship. According to 1 
Chron. 6 : 22-28, 33-38, Samuel the prophet 
whose father, however, is called an Ephraimite 
in 1 Sam, 1 : 1, is made out to be a descendant 
of Korah ; and his grandson Heman the singer 
(1 Chrou. 6:33)^ called also "the king's seer" 
(1 Chron. 25 : 5), adds lustcr to the family name. 
Several of the Psalms, according to their titles, 
were composed for the sons of Korah (see ps. 42, 
44-49)^ the indication being that a family or 
guild of Levitical singers were so predominantly 
of Korahite descent as to call themselves by 
his name, 

Several of the names, owing no doubt to 
errors of transcription, differ slightly from the 
corresponding names found in other lists. For 
instance, Nemuel (ver. 12) is in Gen. 46:10; 
Exod. 6: 15 Jemuel; and Zerah (ver. 13) is in 
Genesis Zohar. One more name, Ohad, appears 
in Genesis as a descendant of Simeon, than here. 
Jachin in ver. 12 is represented in 1 Chron. 4 : 
24 by Jarib. In the tribe of Gad (ver. 15) Zephon 



110 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXVI. 



24 Of Jasliub, the family of the Jashubites: of 
Shimroii, the family of the" Sliimronites. 

25 These are the families of Issachar according to 
those that were numbered of them, threescore aud 
four thousand and three hundred. 

26 Of the sous of Zebuluu after their families : of 
Sered, the family of the Sardites : of Elou, tlie 
family of the Elonites : of Jahleel, the family of the 
Jahleelites. 

27 These are the families of the Zebul unites ac- 
cording to those that were numbered of them, three- 
score thousand aud hve hundred. 

28 The sous of Joseph after their families were 
Manasseh and Ephraim. 

29 Of the sons of Manasseh : of Machir, the fam- 
ily of the Machirites : and Machir begat Gilead : of 
Gilead come the family of the Gileadites. 

30 These are the sons of Gilead : of Jeezer, the 
family of the Jeezerites : of Helek, the family of 
the Helekites : 

31 And 0/ Asriel, the family of the Asrielites : and 
of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites: 

32 And of Shemida, the family of the Shemida- 
ites : and of Hepher, the family of the Hepherites. 

33 And Zelophehad the son' of Hepher had no 
sons, but daughters : and the names of the daugli- 
ters of Zelopliehud were Mahlah, and Noah, Hog- 
lah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 

34 These are the families of Manasseh, and those 
that were numbered of them, fifty and two thou- 
sand and seven liundred. 

35 These are the sons of Ephraim after their fam- 
ilies : of Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthalhites : 
of Becher, the family of the Bachrites : of Tahan, 
the family of the Tahanites. 

36 And these are the sons of Shuthelah : of Eran, 
the family of the Eranites. 

37 These are the families of the sons of Ephraim 
according to those that were numbered of them, 
thirty and two thousand and five hundred. These 
are the sons of Joseph after their families. 

38 The sons of Benjamin after their families: of 
Bela, the family of the Belaites: of Ashbel, the 
family of the Ashbelites : of Ahiram, the family of 
the Ahiramites : 

39 Of Shupham, the family of the Shuphamites: 
of Hupham, the family of the Huphamites. 

40 And the sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman : 
of Ard, the family of the Ardites : and of Naaman, 
the family of the Naamites. 

41 These are the sons of Benjamin after their 
families: and they that were numbered of them 
were forty and five thousand and six hundred. 

42 These are the sons of Dan after their families : 
of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These 
are the families of Dan after their families. 

43 All the families of the Shuhamites, according 
to those that were numbered of them, were three- 
score and four thousand and four hundred. 

44 Of the children of Asher after their families: 
of Jimna, the family of the Jimnites : of Jesui, the 



24 family of the Punites : of Jashub, the family of 
the Jashubites : of Shimron, the family of the 

25 Shimronites. These are the families of Issachar 
according to those that were numbered of them, 
threescore and four thousand and three hundred. 

26 The sons of ZebuJun after their families: of 
Sered, the family of the Seredites : of Elon. the 
family of the Elonites : of Jahleel, the family of 

27 the Jahleelites. These are the families of the 
Zebulunites according to those that were num- 
bered of them, threescore thousand and five 
hundred. 

28 The sons of Joseph after their families : Ma- 

29 nasseh and Ephraim. The sons of Manasseh : of 
Machir, the family of Machirites: and Machir 
begat Gilead : of Gilead, the family of the Gil- 

30 eadites. These are the sons of Gilead : of lezer, 
the family of the lezerites : of Helek, the family 

31 of the Helekites: and o/ Asriel, the family of the 
Asrielites: and of Shechem, the family of the 

32 Shechemites : and of Shemida, the familv of the 
Shemidaites: and of Hepher, the family of the 

33 Hepherites. And Zelophehad the son of Hepher 
had no sons, but daughters: and the names of 
the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahhih, and 

34 Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. These are 
the families of Manasseh : and they that were 
numbered of them were fifty and two thousand 
and seven hundred. 

35 These are the sons of Ephraim after their fam- 
ilies : of Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthela- 
hites : of Becher, the family of the Becherites : of 

36 Tahan, the family of the Tahanites. And these 
are the sons of Shuthelah : of Eran, the family 

37 of the Eranites. These are the families of th'e 
sons of Ephraim according to those that weie 
numbered of them, thirty and two thousand and 
five hundred. These are the sons of Joseph 
after their families. 

38 The sons of Benjamin after their families : of 
Bela, the family of the Belaites : of Ashbel, the 
family of the Ashbelites : of Ahiram, the family 

39 of the Ahiramites: of Shephupham, the family 
of the Shuphamites : of Hupham, the family of 

40 the Huphamites. And the sons of Bela were 
Ard and Naaman : of Ard, the family of the Ard- 
ites : of Naaman, the family of the Naamites. 

41 These are the sons of Benjamin after their fam- 
ilies: and they that were numbered of them 
were forty and five thousand and six hundred. 

42 These are the sons of Dan after their families : 
of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These 

43 are the families of Dan after their families. All 
the families of the Shuhamites, according to 
those that were numbered of them, were three- 
score and four thousand and four hundred. 

44 The sons of Asher after their families : of Im- 
nah, the family of the Imnites : of Ishvi, the 



appears at Gen. 46 : 16 as Ziphion, Ozni as Ez- 
bon, andArod as Arodi. In the tribe of Issa- 
char (ver. 24) Jashub is represented in Gen. 46 : 
13 by Job. The tribe of Manasseh seems to 
have only one name, Machir, of the first gener- 
ation (ver. 29), but this man is called in Josh. 17 : 
1 the firstborn of Manasseh, and is assigned 
Gilead and Bashan, while the " rest of the chil- 
dren of Manasseh " (iWd.. 2) are given a portion 
on the west of the Jordan (iWd., 7-11). Jeezer or 
Jezer of the family of Gilead ( ^er. 30) is called 
in Josh. 17 : 2 Abiezer and appears from Judg. 
6 : 11, 24, 34 to have become the founder of 
a large elan to which the illustrious Gideon 



belonged, and which was of numbers sufficient to 
form a considerable military force. The names 
of the Benjamites are fewer than in Genesis and 
present considerable variations, not only in the 
forms of the names, but in the confounding of 
different generations. Thus two sons of Bela, 
Naaman and Ard (ver. 40) , are in Gen. 46 : 21 
given as sons of Benjamin co-ordinate with the 
first generation. Ahiram (ver. 38) appears in 
Genesis as Ehi, and 1 Chron. 8 : 1 as Aharah ; 
Shupham or Shephupham and Hupham (ver. 39) 
as Muppim and Huppim ; and in 1 Chron. 8 : 3 
Ard is varied to Addar. In the tribe of Dan 
Shuham (ver. 42) appears in Gen. 46 : 23 as 



Ch. XXVI.] 



NUMBERS 



111 



family of the Jesuites : of Beriah, the family of the 
Berites. 

45 Of the sons of Beriah : of Heber, the family of 
the Heberites : of Malchiel, the family of the Mal- 
chielites. 

46 And the name of the daughter of Asher was 
Sarah. 

47 These are the families of the sons of Asher ac- 
cording to those that were numbered of them ; who 
were fifty and three thousand and four hundred. 

48 Of the sons of Naphtali after their families : of 
Jahzeel, the family of the Jahzeelites : of Guni, the 
family of the Gunites : 

49 Of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites : of Shil- 
lem, the family of the Shillemites. 

50 These are the families of Naphtali according 
to their families : and they that were numbered of 
them were forty and five thousand and four hundred . 

51 These were the numbered of the children of 
Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand seven 
hundred and thirty. 

52 And the Lord 'spake unto Moses, saying, 

53 Unto these the land shall be divided for an 
inheritance according to the number of names. 

54 To many thou shaltgive the more inheritance, 
and to few thou shalt give the less inheritance : to 
every one shall his inheritance be given according 
to those that were numbered of him. 

55 Notwithstanding the laud shall be divided by 
lot : according to the names of the tribes of their 
fathers they shall inherit. 

56 According to the lot shall the possession thereof 
be divided between many and few. 

57 And these are they that were numbered of the 
Levites after their families : of Gershon, the family 
of the Gershonites: of Kohath, the family of tlie ■ 
Kohathites : of Merari, the family of the Merarites. 

58 These are the families of the Levites : the fam- 
ily of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, 
the family of the Mahlites, the family of the 
Mushites, the family of the Korathites, And Ko- 
hath begat Amram. 



family of the Ishvites : of Beriah, the family of 

45 the Beriites. Of the sons of Beriah : of Heber, 
the family of the Heberites: of Malchiel, the 

46 family of the Malchielites. And the name of 

47 the daughter of Asher was Serah. These are the 
families of the sons of Asher according to those 
that were numbered of them, fifty and three 
thousand and four hundred. 

48 The sons of Naphtali after their families : of 
Jahzeel, the family of the Jahzeelites : of Guni, 

49 the family of the Gunites: of Jezer, the family 
of the Jezerites: of Shillem, the family of the 

50 Shillemites. These are the families of Naphtali 
according to their families : and they that were 
numbered of them were forty and five thousand 
and four hundred. 

51 These are they that were numbered of the 
children of Israel, six hundred thousand and a 
thousand seven hundred and thirty. 

52 And the Lord spake uuto Moses, saying, 

53 Unto these the land shall be divided for an in- 
heritance according to the number of names. 

54 To the more thou shalt give the more inherit- 
ance, and to the fewer thou shalt give the less 
inheritance : to every one according to those 
that were numbered of him shall his inherit- 

55 ance be given. Notwithstanding the land shall 
be divided by lot : according to the names of the 

56 tribes of their fathers they shall inherit. Ac- 
cording to the lot shall their inheritance be di- 
vided betvi^een the more and the fewer. 

57 And these are they that were numbered of the 
Levites after their families : of Gershon, the 
family of the Gershonites: of Kohath, the fam- 
ily of the Kohathites: of Merari, the family of 

58 the Merarites. These are the families of Levi : 
the family of the Libnites, the family of the 
Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the fam- 
ily of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. 



Hushim. Asher has one more family, Ishvah, 
in Gen. 46 : 17 than here. 

52-56. To these officially established family 
groups the land of Canaan was to be assigned. A 
double principle of division which at first seems 
perplexing and almost inconsistent was to be 
adopted. The size of the inheritance was to 
be regulated according to the number of 
names (ver. 53)^ a larger portion being given to 
a larger group and a smaller to a smaller group 
( ver. 54) . Then superimposed on this scheme is an 
entirely distinct principle of division, namely, 
that the land was to be divided by lot (ver. 55, 
56). It is evident that the only thing which could 
be subjected to the chances of the lot was the 
location and desirability of the various portions, 
as the size must be regulated by the populousness 
of the tribe. It is also evident that the lot was the 
simplest method of deciding choice of location, 
and perhaps the only way to avoid contentions. 
With a free hand, the strong and populous 
tribes would have monopolized by sheer strength 
all the most desirable territory of Canaan. On 
the other hand, it is not unAvorthy of note that 
on the actual occupation of the land the largest 
and most influential tribe, that of Judah, re- 
ceived the greatest single section of the moun- 



tainous and barren territory of Palestine. The 
land was no doubt made up into the required 
number of indefinitely bounded portions, dis- 
tinguished according to location and kind of 
territory, and then after the drawing an adjust- 
ment of boundary and extent was made accord- 
ing to the populousness of the tribe to which 
the portion fell. Perhaps this scheme of adjust- 
ment is indicated in ver. 54, which is literally 
translated : To the great thou shalt extend his 
inheritance and to the little thou shalt diminish 
his inheritance. 

57-63. The families given under the head of 
the tribe of Levi do not comprise all the families 
that are named in chap. 3, perhaps because some 
of them became extinct or were incorporated 
with other families of the tribe. Of the families 
named, the Libnites ( ver. 58) belonged to Gershon, 
the Hebronites and the Korahites to Kohath, and 
the Mahlites and the Mushites to Merari. The 
Shimeites (s : 21) were perhaps extinct or in- 
corporated with the Libnites, and the Uzzielites 
(3 : 27) may in like manner have become in- 
corporated with some other family of Kohath. 
Very likely the Izharites (ibid.) were now all 
known as Korahites, as Korah was the promi- 
nent son of Izhar. As for the Amramites, these 



112 



LUMBERS 



[Ch. XXVII. 



59 And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, 
the daughter of Levi, whom her viother bare to Levi 
in Egypt : and she bare unto Amram Aaron and 
Moses, and Miriam their sister. 

60 And unto Aaron was born Xadab, and Abihu, 
Eleazar, and Ithaniar. 

61 And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered 
strange tire before the Lord. 

62 And those that were numbered of them were 
twenty and three thousand, all males from a month 
old and upward : for they were not numbered 
among the children of Israel, because there was no 
inheritance gi^en them among the children of 
Israel. 

63 These are they that were numbered by Moses 
and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children 
of Israel in the plains or" Moab by Jordan near 
Jericho. 

64 But among these there was not a man of them 
whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when 
they numbered the children of Israel in the wil- 
derness of Sinai. 

65 For the Lord had said of them, They shall 
surely die in the wilderness. And there was not 
left a" man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephun- 
neh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 



59 And Kohath begat Amram. And the name of 
Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of 
Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt : and she 
bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam 

60 their sister. And unto Aaron were born Nadab 

61 and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. And Xadab 
and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire 

62 before the Lord. And they that were numbered 
of them were twentj- and three thousand, every 
male from a month old and upward : for they 
were not numbered among the children of Is- 
rael, because there was no inheritance given 
them among the children of Israel. 

63 These are they that were numbered by Moses 
and Eleazar the priest : who numbered the chil- 
dren of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jor- 

64 dan at Jericho. But among these there was not 
a man of them that were numbered by Moses 
and Aaron the priest ; who numbered the chil- 

65 dren of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For 
the Lord had said of them, They shall surely 
die in the wilderness. And there "was not left a 
man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, 
and Joshua the son of Nun. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 



1 THEN came the daughters of Zelophehad, the 
son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Ma- 
chir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manas- 
seh the son of Joseph : and tliese are the names of 
his daughters : Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and | 
Milcah. and Tirzah. i 

2 And they stood before Moses, and before Ele- j 
azar the priest, and before the princes and all the 
congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the i 
congregation, saying, i 



1 THEN drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, 

the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of 
Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of 
Manasseh the son of Joseph : and these are the 
names of his daughters; Mahlah, Noah, and 

2 Hoglah. and Milcah, and Tirzah. And they 
stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the 
priest, and before the princes and all the con- 
gregation, at the door of the tent of meeting. 



are acconnted for in ver. 59-61. The text in 
yer. 59 is perhaps defective, but the passive 
was horn, as in E,. Y., gives the right sense. 
Jochebed was a daughter of Levi only in 

the sense of being a descendant, as three cen- 
tuiies inteiwened between Levi and Amram. 
In Exod. 6 : 20 she is called her husband's 
father's sister. The Levites were numbered 
from a month old and upward, as the military 
age had no significance in their case. They 
bear a very small proportion to the other tribes 
in numbers, both here and in chap. 3 (see com. 
on 3 : 21-39) ; and thev have made an increase 
since the numbering in Sinai of one thousand, 
or perhaps more correctly, seven hundred ('^er- 

62 ; cf. 3 : 39 and note). 

63-65. On the statement that Caleb and 
Joshua were the only survivors, at the second 
numbering, of the generation that came out of 
Egypt (Ter. 65), see com. on 1-i : 26-38. 



Chap. 27. The DArGHTEES of Zelophe- 
had. Moses waened of his death. Joshta 
HIS srcCESSOR. 1-5. These daughters of Zelo- 
phehad, whose names are given in full no less 
than three times in this book (cf. 26 : 33 ; 36: ii), are 
the occasion of peculiar questions, not only with 
reference to their inheritance, as here, but a lit- 
tle later with reference to their marriage, as in 



chap. 36. Their father was dead ; and yet the 
inheritance, which if it were an actual reality 
would naturally be in their possession, consisted 
only in a possible right to a share in a future 
domain. What they were petitioning for was a 
status and recognition in the coming allotment. 
The estate would carry with it the right to 
marry a husband into their family and so pre- 
serve the name (cf. ver. 4), instead of having to 
marry into another family and assume the name 
of the one who brought the estate. It was 
probably through being made an heiress by her 
father's act that the daughter of Machir the 
father of Gilead, though married into the tribe 
of Judah, had descendants who were neverthe- 
less reckoned as Manassites (see 1 Chron. 2 : 21, seq. ; 

xom. 32 : ii). Shesliau also, who had no son, 
married his Egyptian servant Jarha into his 
family and reckoned the posterity as of his own 
tribe (1 Chron. 2 : 34, seq.). But in the case of these 
daughters of Zelophehad the father was not liv- 
ing to make such arrangements, or even to come 
into possession of the land which by descend- 
ing to them might give them a legal status. 

These women stood before Moses, and 
before Eleazar the priest, and before 
the princes and all the congresation, 
by the door of the tabernacle (^er. 2), 
not, perhaps, because all these had been 



Ch. XX VII.] 



NUMBERS 



113 



3 Our father died in the wilderness, and he was 
not in the company of them that gathered them- 
selves together against the Lord in the company of 
Korah ; but died in his own sin, and had no sous. 

4 Why should the name of our father be done 
away from among his family, because he hath no 
son ? Give unto us therefore a possession among the 
brethren of our father. 

5 And Moses brought their cause before the Lord. 

6 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

7 The daughters of Zelophehad speak right : thou 
shalt surely give them a possession of an inherit- 
ance among their father's brethren ; and thou shalt 
cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto 
them. 

8 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Is- 
rael, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then 
ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his 
daughter. 

9 And if he have no daughter, 'ohen ye shall give 
his inheritance unto his brethren. 

10 And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give 
his inheritance unto his father's brethren. 

11 And if his father have no brethren, then ye 
shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is 
next to him of his family, and he shall possess it : 
and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute 
of judgment, as the Lord commanded Moses. 

12 And the Lord said unto Moses, Get thee up 
into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I 
have given unto the children of Israel. 



3 saying, Our father died in the wilderness, and 
he was not among the company of them that 
gathered themselves together against the Lord 
in the company of Korah : but he died in his 

4 own sin ; and he had no sons. Why should the 
name of our father be taken away from among 
his family, because he had no son ? Give unto 
us a possession among the brethren of our father. 

5 And Moses brought their cause before the 

6 Lord. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 
1 The daughters of Zelophehad speak right : th(;u 

shalt surely give them a possession of an in- 
heritance among their father's brethren ; and 
thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father 

8 to pass unto them. And thou shalt speak unto 
the children of Israel, saying. If a man die, and 
have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance 

9 to pass unto his daughter. And if he have no 
daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto 

10 his brethren. And if he have no brethren, then 
ye shall give his inheritance unto his father's 

11 brethren. And if his father have no brethren, 
then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kins- 
man that is next to him of his family, and he 
shall possess it : and it shall be unto the children 
of Israel a statute of judgement, as the Lord 
commanded Moses. 

12 And the Lord said unto Moses, Get thee up into 
this mountain of Abarim, and behold the land 
which I have given unto the children of IsraeL 



assembled in order to hear their plea, but rather 
because the enumeration was in progress at the 
nation's headquarters. In connection with the 
census there was no doubt a sort of court hold- 
ing its sittings in order to inquire into and de- 
cide cases of dispute or uncertainty arising 
throughout the tribes. The daughters of Ze- 
lophehad made the plea that there was no 
reason why any punishment or deprivation of 
privilege should descend to them, as their father 
was not one of the company of Korah (ver. s ; 
cf. 16 : 2, 35). It has already been pointed out (see 
on 16 : 1-3) that wc havc here an indication that 
Korah's company was not solely Levitical, but 
was recruited from the various tribes. The 
noticeable expression is used, but died in his 
own sin, as if the sin into which a person or 
company was led through the overpowering in- 
fluence of a leader became to some degree that 
leader's sin; while by "his own sin," for which 
his death was the penalty, was doubtless meant 
his share in the sin of the whole nation at 
Kadesh, in consequence of which all that gen- 
eration was sentenced to die in the wilderness 
(u : 28-35 ; 26 : 64, 65). The rcqucst of the women 
was that in the allotment of Canaan they might 
represent their father as co-ordinate with his 
brothers (ver. 4). As in other instances of enact- 
ments arising out of specific cases (cf. Lev. 24 : 12 ; 
Num. 15 : u) ^ Moscs deferred the decision until he 
could bring the case before Jehovah (ver. 5). 

6-11. In this section ver. 6, 7 give the answer 
applying to the specific case of the daughters of 
Zelophehad, while the rest of the paragraph, 



starting with a new introduction (ver. s), gives 
the permanent law regulating the descent of 
property in case there are no sons or direct 
heirs. The decision regarding the petitioners 
was that their proposal was reasonable, and 
that they should have a possession among their 
father's brethren which should come to them as 
an inheritance from their father (ver. 7). As for 
the rule of inheritance in general, the order of 
descent should be: (1) son, (2) daughter, (3) 
brothers, (4) father's brothers, (5) nearest kin. 
This was to be unto the children of Israel 
a statute of judgment (ver. 11), i, e., a statute 
determining natural right in distinction from 
the will of the testator which is assumed to be 
not on record. 

12-14. Moses is now directed to ascend the 
mountain of Abarim for a final view of the 
Promised Land ; but the actual obeying of the 
command and the death of the lawgiver are not 
narrated until Deut. 34. This same command is 
repeated in Deut. 32 : 48-52, and the day on which 
it was uttered is specified as the selfsame day on 
which Moses made an end of speaking to the 
people the words of his farewell song. It seems 
to be introduced out of its connection here in 
Numbers. The mountain of Abarim (ver. 12)^ of 
which Nebo, or the "head of Pisgah" (23 : u; 
Deut. 34 : i)^ was but a particular headland, was 
the whole range of bluffs or promontories along 
the further side (Abarim, " Further Regions " ) 
of Jordan from western Palestine. Although 
very steep and abrupt on tlie side next to the 
Jordan Valley, this Abarim range was more of a 



H 



114 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXVII. 



13 And when thou hast seen it, thou also shaltbe 
gathered uuto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was 
gathered. 

14 For ye rebelled against my commandment in 
the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, 
to sanctify me at the water before their eyes : that 
is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilder- 
ness of Zin. 

15 And Moses spake unto the Lord, saying, 

16 Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of ail flesh, 
set a man over tlie congregation, 

17 Which may go out before them, and which 
may go in before them, and which may lead them 
out, and which may bring them in ; that the con- 
gregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have 
no sliepherd. 

18 And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee 
Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the 
spirit, and lay thine hand upon him ; 

19 And set" him before Eleazar the priest, and 
before all the congregation ; and give him a charge 
in their sight. 

20 And thou shalt put some of thine honour upon 
him, that all the congregation of the children of 
Israel may be obedient. 

21 And *he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, 
who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of 
Urim before the Lord : at his word shall they go 
out, and at his word they shall comL' in, both he, 
and all the children of Israel with him, even all 
the congregation. 



13 And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be 
gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother 

14 was gathered : because ye rebelled ag'ainst my 
word in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the 
congregation, to sanctify me at the waters before 
their eyes. (These are the waters of Meribah of 

15 Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) And Moses 

16 spake unto the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the 
God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man 

17 over the congregation, which may go out before 
them, and which may come in before them, and 
which may lead them out, and wliich may bring 
them in ; that the congregation of the Lord be 

18 not as sheep which have no shepherd. And the 
Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the sou 
of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay 

19 thine hand upon him ; and set him before Ele- 
azar the priest, and before all the congregation ; 

20 and give him a charge in their sight. And thou 
shalt put of thine honour upon him, that all the 
congregation of the children of Israel may obey. 

21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the "priest, 
who shall inquire for him by the judgement of 
the Urim before the Lord : at his word shall they 
go out, and at his word they shall come in, both 
he, and all the children of Israel with him, even 



platform than a series of peaks, forming the steep 
western edge of the table-land of Moab, and 
looking down on Jeshimon or the wilderness of 
Judah. It was on this same headland of Pisgah 
that Balaam delivered his second discourse (23 : 
1*). Moses is warned that, after being granted 
that grateful bird's-eye view, he shall be gath- 
ered to his people, as Aaron his brother was 
gathered (ver. is; cf. 20 : 23-29). He is reminded 
of the reason why he is excluded from entrance 
on the promised possession (ver. u) : he rebelled 
against Jehovah's ivord, or mouth, which was 
that he should sanctify Jehovah before the 
people. On the sin of Moses at that time, see 
comment on 20 : 2-13. The last sentence of ver. 
14, rightly put in parenthesis in the E.. V., was 
probably inserted by the writer or some later 
redactor as an explanatory gloss. 

15-23. It was natural that the great man on 
whom the whole burden of the nation had rested 
all his life, and who had sometimes felt that 
the care of the congregation was like that of a 
crowd of infants (cf. 11 : 11, 12, and note), should be 
anxious regarding the future of that helpless 
flock. In the imagery of his old shepherd days 
he prays that they may not be left like wander- 
ing sheep, but may have one to lead them out 
and bring them in (^er. 17). It is to Jehovah as 
the God of the spirits of all flesh — a name 
by which he has designated him on a former 
occasion (16 : 22) — that he looks for the supply- 
ing of this great need, for it is the true spirit for 
a leader of the people which must be provided ; 
and Moses perhaps has failed to recognize just 



such a spirit as his zeal would entrust the people 
to, even in Joshua. Joshua was a very different 
man from Moses, and he was to have a very dif- 
ferent work to accomplish with the people. It 
would be strange if Moses at his advanced age 
should fully enter into the new order of things. 
But Jehovah assures him that Joshua is a man 
in whom is the spirit (ver. is). He is to take 
him and by a formal and public investiture 
transfer to him his authority and something of 
his honour (ver. 20) — so far as this inheres in 
his position as distinguished from his private 
character — so that through the prestige of his 
indorsement Joshua may command the people's 
obedience. In Deut. 34 : 9 it is said that Joshua 
was full of the spirit of wisdom, " for Moses had 
laid his hands upon him " — the investitiu*e and 
its consequent sense of responsibility no doubt 
bringing out that great general's latent qualities 
as a leader. The successor of Moses, however, 
did not take over all the endowments and func- 
tions of his great predecessor. It was the unique 
power and privilege of Moses to be at once 
commander and prophet " whom Jehovah knew 
face to face" (Deut. 34 : 10). Henceforth, for 
the present at least, the secular commander is 
to seek divine guidance at the hands of the 
priest. He shall stand before Eleazar 
the priest (ver. 21), and in all matters of super- 
natural guidance shall be dependent on the 
judgment of Urim (cf. Exod. 28 : so), that form 
of sacred divination or lot, no longer under- 
stood, which was in use at least down to the 

time of David (see 1 Sam. 22 : 13, 15; 23 : 2, 4, 9-12), 



Ch. XXVIII.] 



NUMBERS 



115 



22 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him : 
and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the 
priest, and before all the congregation : 

23 And he laid his hands upon him, and gave 
him a charge, as the Lord commanded by the hand 
of Moses. 



22 all the congregation. And Moses did as the Lord 
commanded him : and he took Joshua, and set 
him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the 

23 ccmgregatiou : and he laid his hands upon him, 
and gave him a charge, as the Lord spake by the 
hand of Moses. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Command the children of Israel, and say unto 
them. My offering, and my bread for ray sacrifices 
made by fire, /or a sweet savour unto me, shall ye 
observe to offer unto me in their due season. 

3 And thou shalt say unto them. This is the offer- 
ing made by fire which ye shall offer unto the Lord ; 
two lambs of the first year without spot day by day, 
for a continual burnt offering. 

4 The one Jamb shalt thou offer in the morning, 
and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even ; 

5 And a tenth partoi an ephah of flour for a meat 
offering, mingled with the fourth part of an hin of 
beaten oil. 

6 ii is a continual burnt offering, which was or- 
dained in mount Sinai for a sweet savour, a sacri- 
fice made by fire unto the Lord. 

7 And the drink offering thereof shall he the 
fourth part of an hin for the one lamb : in the holy 
place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured 
unto the Lord /or a drink offering. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Command the children of Israel, and say unto 
them. My oblation, my food for my offerings 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto me, shall 
ye observe to offer unto me in their due season. 

3 And thou shalt say unto them. This is the offer- 
ing made by fire which ye shall offer unto the 
Lord ; he-lambs of the first year without blem- 
ish, two day by day, for a continual burnt ott'er- 

4 ing. The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morn- 
ing, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even ; 

5 and the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for 
a meal offering, mingled with the fourth part of 

6 an hin of beaten oil. It is a continual burnt 
offering, which was ordained in mount Sinai 
for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto 

7 the Lord. And the drink offering thereof shall 
be the fourth part of an hin for tlie one lamb: 
in the holy place shalt thou pour out a drink 



Joshua had little of the prophet in him, and 
indeed was not of a temperament to understand 
the prophetic genius (see on ii : 23-35) ; and per- 
haps even in seeking priestly divine counsel he 
became somewhat neglectful of his guides, at 
least in his treaty with the Gibeonites (see Josh. 
9 : s, seq. ). Moses carried out the instructions of 
Jehovah and gave Joshua a public charge before 
Eleazar and all the people (ver. 22, 23). 



Chap. 28, 29. The public saceifices 

FOR THE SACRED YEAR. 28 : 1-8. 1. The 
continual burnt offering. The first and second 
verses are a sort of title or general command- 
ment covering all the specific arrangements 
which are given in detail in what follows. The 
terms are a sort of generic description of the 
ofiering from the standpoint of the Divine ac- 
ceptance, and thus used they express the popu- 
lar theory of sacrifice in general, which is that 
of ministering to Jehovah's pleasure, as one 
ministers to the sensual enjoyment of a superior. 
Literally, the expression of the divine aspect of 
sacrifice is as follows (ver. 2) ; " My ofiering, my 
food for my fire offering, my pleasurable smell, ye 
shall observe to bring to me in its season." This 
continual burnt offering, as is indicated in 
ver. 6, was ordained in mount Sinai, and 
we have the command recorded in Exod. 29 : 38, 
seq. It constitutes the daily service maintained 
at the public expense for the benefit of all the 
people. The details given here are precisely 
the same as in Exodus, with the noteworthy 
addition in ver. 7, appended as an emphatic 
summary : In the holy place shalt thou pour 



out a drink offering of strong drink unto Jeho- 
vah. The drink offering is never very dis- 
tinctly described in the Pentateuch and seems 
to be assumed as well known rather than spe- 
cifically defined. The direction here that it is 
to be poured out in the holy place is some- 
what puzzling, especially in view of the fact 
that it was not allowed upon the altar of incense 
(Exod. 30 : 9). From this special prohibition some 
have inferred by antithesis that it was poured 
upon the sacrifice on the altar of burnt offering, 
but this was not strictly "in the holy place" 
but in the court. Others infer from Ecclus. 
50 : 15 that it was poured around the foot of the 
altar. It is to be noted that the vessels for 
pouring the libation were a part of the furniture 
of the table of shewbread "in the holy place" 
(see Exod. 25 : 29). The word translated strong 
wine in A. V., but more correctly strong drink 
in E,. v., is always used distinctively of other 
strong liquors than wine, though there is never 
elsewhere any hint of the use of strong drink in 
the sacrifices. The term is perhaps used here 
generically, in accordance with the apparent 
characteristic of this paragraph (cf. ver. 2)^ of all 
strong drink, including wine, as distinguished 
from water, thus characterizing the drink offer- 
ing, from the theoretical standpoint of the 
Divine pleasure, as "Jehovah's strong drink." 
The two lambs, with their accompanying meal 
and drink offerings, were to be offered, the one 
in the morning and the other " between the two 
evenings" (ver. i)^ %, e., between the beginning 
of twilight and dark, as Jehovah's odor of 
pleasantness. 



116 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXVIII. 



8 And the other lamb shalt thou offer at even : as 
the meat offering of the morning, and as the drink 
offering thereof, thou shalt offer it, a sacrifice made 
by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. 

9 And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first 
year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour Jor 
a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink 
offering thereof : 

10 This is the burnt offering of every sabbath, be- 
side the continual burnt offering, and his drink 
offering. 

11 And in the beginnings of your months ye shall 
offer a bui-nt offering unto the Lord ; two young 
bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first 
year without spot ; 

12 And three tenth deals of flour/or a meat offer- 
ing, mingled with oil, for one bullock; and two 
tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled 
with oil, for one ram ; 

13 And a several tenth deal of flour mingled 
with oil for a meat offering unto one lamb ; for a 
burnt offering of a sweet savour, a sacrifice made 
by fire unto the Lord. 

14 And their drink offerings shall be half an bin 
of wine unto a bullock, and the third part of an 
bin unto a ram, and a fourth part of an bin unto a 
lamb : this is the burnt offering of every month 
throughout the mouths of the year. 

15 And one kid of the goats for a sin offering 
unto the Lord shall be offered, beside the continual 
burnt offering, and his drink offering. 

16 And in the fourteenth day of the first month 
is the passover of the Lord. 

17 And in the fifteenth day of this month ?.<; the 
feast : seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. 

18 In the first day shall be an holy convocation ; 
ye shall do no manner of servile work therein: 

19 But ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire /or a 
burnt offering unto the Lord ; two young bullocks, 
and one ram, and seven lambs of the first year: 
they shall be unto you without blemish : 

20 And their meat offering shall be of fiour mingled 
with oil : three tenth deals shall ye offer for a bul- 
lock, and two tenth deals for a ram ; 

21 A several tenth deal shalt thou offer for every 
lamb, throughout the seven lambs : 

22 And one goat for a sin offering, to make an 
atonement for you. 

23 Ye shall offer these beside the burnt offering in 
the morning, which is for a continual burnt offering. 

24 After this manner ye shall offer daily, through- 
out the seven days, the meat of the sacrifice made 
by fire, of a sweet savour xinto the Lord : it shall be 
offered beside the continual burnt offering, and his 
drink offering. 

25 And on the seventh day ye shall have an holy 
convocation ; ye shall do no servile work. 



8 offering of strong drink unto the Lord. And the 
other lamb shalt thou offer at even : as the meal 
offering of the morning, and as the drink offer- 
ing thereof, thou shalt offer it, an offering made 
by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. 

9 And on the sabbath day two he-lambs of the 
first year without blemish, and two tenth parts 
of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, 
mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof : 

10 this is the burnt offering of every sabbath, be- 
side the continual burnt offering, and the drink 
ott'ering thereof. 

11 And in the beginnings of j'our months ye shall 
offer a burnt offering unto the Lord ; two young 
bullocks, and one ram, seven he-lambs of the first 

12 year without blemish ; and three tenth parts of 
an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled 
with oil, for each bullock: and two tenth parts 
of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with 

13 oil, for the one ram ; and a several tenth part of 
fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering 
unto every lamb ; for a burnt offering of a sweet 
savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord, 

14 And their drink offerings shall be half an bin of 
wine for a bullock, and the third part of an bin 
for the ram, and the fourth part of an bin for a 
lamb: this is the burnt offering of every month 

15 throughout the months of the year. And one 
he-gcat for a sin offering unto the Lord ; it shall 
be offered beside the continual burnt offering, 
and the drink offering thereof. 

16 And in the first month, on the fourteenth day 

17 of the month, is the Lord's passover. And on 
the fifteenth day of this month shall be a feast: 

18 seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. In 
the first day shall be an holy convocation ; ye 

19 shall do no servile work : but ye shall offer an 
offering made by fire, a burnt offering unto the 
Lord ; two young bullocks, and one ram, and 
seven he-lambs of the first year: they shall be 

20 unto you without blemish : and their meal offer- 
ing, fine flour mingled with oil: three tenth 
parts shall ye offer for a bullock, and two tenth 

21 parts for the ram ; a several tenth part shalt thou 

22 (ffer for every lamb of the seven lambs; and 
onehe-goat for a sin offering, to make atonement 

23 for you. Ye shall offer these beside the burnt 
offering of the morning, which is for a continual 

24 1 urnt offering. After this manner ye shall offer 
daily, for seven days, the food of the offering 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord : 
it shall be offered beside the continual burnt 

25 offering, and the drink offering thereof. And 
on the seventh day ye shall have an holy con- 
vocation ; ye shall do no servile work. 



9,10. 2. The offering for the Sabbath. The 
offering for the Sabbath is simply a doubling of 
the daily burnt offering with its accompanying 
subsidiary offerings. 

11-15. 3. The beginning of the month. The 
beginning of the month, or new moon, is fre- 
quently mentioned as a time of special observ- 
ance (see 1 Sam. 20 : 5 ; 2 Kings 4 : 23 ; Isa. 1 : 13), and 

from Ezekiel onward it appears to be an occa- 
sion of special public sacrifice (Ezek. 45 : 17 ; 46 : 6, 

seq., etc.). The Specific offerings are the same as 
for each of the seven days of Mazzoth and for 
the day of first-fruits. To be noted is the bring- 
ing of a shaggy goat for a sin offering (ver. 15) 
in addition to the purely homage offerings of 
which the bulk of the festival consists. 
16-35. 4. Passover and Mazzoth. The Pass- 



over is simply named, its manner of observance 
being assumed as well known. The details of 
the feast are prescribed in connection with the 
account of the departure from Egypt (Exod. 12 : 
1-14). In the list of the set feasts given in Le- 
viticus the Passover is merely mentioned as 
here, while the principal emphasis seems to be 
laid upon the seven days of Mazzoth in imme- 
diate connection with it which, besides the ab- 
sence of leaven, are to be marked by special 
burnt offerings on each day (Lev. 23 : 5-8). The 
details of these burnt offerings are given here. 
Each day's offering is to be the same as the 
offering for the new moon festival, including 
the daily sin offering of the goat. All this is to 
be in addition to the continual burnt offering 
with its subsidiary offerings (ver. 24). 



Ch. XXIX.] 



NUMBERS 



117 



26 Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring 
a new meat offering unto the Lord, after your weeks 
be out, ye shall have an holy convocation ; ye shall 
do no servile work : 

27 But ye shall offer the burnt offering for a sweet 
savour unto the Lord ; two young bullocks, one 
ram, seven lambs of the first year; 

28 And their meat offering of flour mingled with 
oil, three tenth deals unto one bullock, two tenth 
deals unto one ram, 

29 A several tenth deal unto one lamb, through- 
out the seven lambs ; 

30 A7id one kid of the goats, to make an atone- 
ment for you. 

31 Ye shall offer them beside the continual burnt 
offering, and his meat offering, (they shall be unto 
you without blemish) and their drink offerings. 



26 Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye offer 
a new meal offering unto the Lord in your feast 
of weeks, ye shall have an holy convocation ; ye 

27 shall do no servile work : but ye shall offer a 
burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the Lord ; 
two young bullocks, one ram, seven he-lambs of 

28 the first year ; and their meal offering, fine tiour 
mingled with oil, three tenth parts for each bul- 

29 lock, two tenth parts for the one ram, a several 
tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs ; 

30 one he-goat, to make atonement for you. 

31 Beside the continual burnt offering, and the 
meal offering thereof, ye shall offer them (thej' 
shall be unto you without blemish), and their 
drink offerings. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



1 AND in the seventh month, on the first day of 
the month, ye shall have an holy convocation ; ye 
shall do no servile work : it is a day of blowing the 
trumpets unto you. 

2 And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet 
savour unto the Lord ; one young bullock, one ram, 
and seven lambs of the first year without blemish : 

3 And their meatoffering shall be o/ flour mingled 
with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock, and two 
tenth deals for a ram, 

4 And one tenth deal for on6 lamb, throughout 
the seven lambs : 

5 And one kid of the goats for a sin offering, to 
make an atonement for you : 

6 Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his 
meat offering, and the daily burnt offering, and his 
meat offering, and their drink offerings, according 
unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice 
made by fire unto the Lord. 



1 AND in the seventh month, on the first day of 
the month, ye shall have an holy convocation ; 
ye shall do no servile work : it is a day of blow- 

2 ing of trumpets unto you. And ye shall offer a 
burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the Lord : 
one young bullock, one ram, seven he-lambs of 

3 the first year without blemish : and their meal 
offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth 
parts for the bullock, two tenth parts for the 

4 ram, and one tenth part for every lamb of the 

5 seven lambs : and one he-goat for a sin ofteruig, 

6 to make atonement for you : beside the burnt 
offering of the new moon, and the meal oft'ering 
thereof, and the continual burnt offering and 
the meal offering thereof, and their drink offer- 
ings, according unto their ordinance, for a sweet 
savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. 



26-31. 5. Day of first-fruits. This festival 
is named the day of first-fruits only here ; in 
Lev. 23 : 15, seq., it is introduced without a 
name, but from the fact of its occurring seven 
weeks, or on the fiftieth day, after a particular 

date (see "Com. on Leviticus," 23 : 15-21) ^ it haS COmC 

to be known as the feast of weeks, or Pentecost. 
The sacrifices for the occasion are there pre- 
scribed, and they correspond in the main with 
those prescribed here, which are the same as for 
the new moons and for each of the days of Maz- 
zoth. A curious variation is that while here the 
requirement is two young bullocks and one ram 
(ver. 27) J in Leviticus (23 : 18) it is one young bul- 
lock and two rams. The directions in that book 
also add two he lambs a year old for a sacrifice 
of peace offerings (ibid., ver. 19), 



Chap. 29. This chapter is entirely occupied 
with the ofierings for the seventh month, in- 
cluding the feast of trumpet blowing with which 
the month was ushered in, the great Day of 
Atonement, and the feast of Booths, the culmi- 
nating festival of the year. These festivals are 
commanded in Lev. 23 and partially described, 
but the chapter before us is concerned simply 
with the offerings to be made on those occasions. 
The covenant number seven seems to be given 
unusual emphasis in this chapter, in that the 



seventh month is made the culmination of the 
year, the whole number of bullocks oflered at 
the feast of Booths is seventy, the diminishing 
series being so arranged that the number seven 
falls on the seventh day, and the festival itself, 
aside from its H'l^jr, 'atzereth, or supplemental 
day, is a seven-day feast. 

1-6. Q. Feast of trumpet blowing. This fes- 
tival as a holy convocation is prescribed in Lev. 
23 : 23-25. The sacrifices for the day, in addi- 
tion to the monthly new moon offering (ver. e) 
and the daily burnt offering, were almost iden- 
tical with those for the new moon festival, the 
only difference being that one young bullock 
was used instead of two (ver. 2; cf. 28 : 11). go 
just as the offering for the Sabbath was a dou- 
bling of the daily sacrifice (28 .- 9) , so the offering 
for the beginning of the seventh month was 
almost a doubling of the new moon offering for 
each month. It may be noted that while in 
chap. 28 three different festivals — the new moon, 
each day of Mazzoth, and the day of first-fruits 
— were celebrated each with two young bul- 
locks, one ram, and seven lambs, in this chapter 
three festivals — the day of trumpet blowing, the 
Day of Atonement, and the 'atzereth, or supple- 
ment to the feast of Booths — are characterized 
each by the same system of offerings with the 
lack of one bullock. 



118 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXIX. 



7 And j'e shall have on the tenth day of this sev- 
enth month an holy convocation ; and ye shall 
aflict your souls : ye shall not do any work therein : 

8 But ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the Lord 
for a sweet savour ; one young bullock, one ram, 
and seven lambs of the tirst year ; they shall be 
unto you without blemish : 

9 And their meat offering shall he of flour mingled 
with oil, three tenth deals to a bullock, and two 
tenth deals to one ram, 

10 A several tenth deal for one lamb, throughout 
the seven lambs : 

11 One kid of the goats /o?- a sin offering ; beside 
the sin offering of atonement, and the continual 
burnt offering, and the meat offering of it, and 
their drink offerings. 

12 And on the fffteenth day of the seventh month 
ye shall have an holy convocation ; ye shall do no 
servile work, and ye shall keep a feast unto the 
Lord seven days : 

13 And ye shall offer a burnt offering, a sacrifice 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord ; 
thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fouiteen 
lambs of the first year ; they shall be without 
blemish : 

1-i And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled 
with oil, three tenth deals unto every bullock of 
the thirteen bullocks, two tenth deals to each ram 
of the two rams, 

15 And a several tenth deal to each lamb of the 
fourteen lambs : 

16 And one kid of the goats for a sin offering ; 
beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offer- 
ing, and his drink offering. 

17 And on the second day ye shall offer twelve 
young bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of the 
first year without spot : 

18 And their meat offering and their drink offer- 
ings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the 
lambs, shall be according to their number, after the 
manner: 

19 And one kid of the goats for a sin offering ; 
beside the continual burnt offering, and the meat 
offering thereof, and their drink offerings. 

20 And on the third day eleven bullocks, two 
rams, fourteen lambs of the first year without 
blemish ; 

21 And their meat offering and their drink offer- 
ings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the 
lambs, shall be according to their number, after the 
manner: 

22 And one goat for a sin offering ; beside the 
continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, 
and his drink offering. 

23 And on the fourth dav ten bullocks, two rams, 
and fourteen lambs of the first year without 
blemish : 

24 Their meat offering and their drink offerings 
for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the larabs, 
shall be according to their number, after the manner : 

25 And one kid of the goats for a sin offering ; 
beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offer- 
ing, and his drink offering. 



7 And on the tenth day of this seventh month 
ye shall have an holy convocation ; and ye shall 
afilict your souls ; ye shall do no maimer of 

8 work : but ye shall offer a burnt offering unto 
the Lord for a sweet savour ; one young bullock, 
one ram, seven he-lambs of the first year ; they 

9 shall be unto you without blemish : and their 
meal offering, fine fiour mingled with oil, three 
tenth parts for the bullock, two tenth parts for 

10 the one ram, a several tenth part for every lamb 

11 of the seven lambs : one he-goat for a sin offer- 
ing ; beside the sin offering of atonement, and 
the continual burnt offering, and the meal offer- 
ing thereof, and their drink offerings. 

12 And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month 
ye shall have an holy convocation ; ye shall do 
no servile work, and ye shall keep a feast unto 

13 the Lord seven days : and je shall offer a burnt 
offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet 
savour unto the Lord ; thirteen young bullocks, 
two rams, fourteen he-lambs of the first year; 

14 they shall be without blemish : and their meal 
offering, fine fiour mingled with oil, three tenth 
parts for every bullock of the thirteen bullocks, 
two tenth jiarts for each ram of the two rams, 

15 and a several tenth part for every lamb of the 

16 fourteen lambs : and one he-goat for a sin offer- 
ing ; beside the continual burnt offering, the 
meal offering thereof, and the drink ottering 
thereof. 

17 And on the second day ye shall offer twelve 
young bullocks, two rams, fourteen he-lambs of 

18 the first year without blemish : and their meal 
offering and their drink offerings for the bul- 
locks, for the rams, and for the lambs, according 

19 to their number, after the ordinance : and one 
he-goat for a sin offering ; beside the continual 
burnt offering, and the meal offering thereof, 
and their drink offerings. 

20 And on the third day eleven bullocks, two 
rams, fourteen he-lambs of the first year with- 

21 out blemish ; and their meal offering and their 
drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, 
and for the lambs, according to their number, 

22 after the ordinance : and one he-goat for a sin 
offering ; beside the continual burnt offering, 
and the meal offering thereof, and the drink 
offering thereof. 

28 And on the fourth day ten bullocks, two rams, 
fourteen he-lambs of the first year without 

24 blemish : their meal oft'ering and their drink 
offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for 
the lambs, according to their number, after the 

25 ordinance : and one he-goat for a sin offering ; 
beside the continual burnt offering, the meal 
offering thereof, and the drink offering thereof. 



7-11. 7. The Day of Atonement. In the list 
of feasts in Lev. 23 : 26-32, the general character 
of this day as a day for afflicting the soul is pre- 
scribed, while that distinguishing feature of puri- 
fication for the sanctuary and for the priests and 
all the people through sin offerings and sprinkled 
blood, and finally the unique ceremony of send- 
ing the live goat away to Azazel, which makes 
this day the great day of the sacred year, is de- 
scribed in full in Lev. 16. In this place we have 
only the sacrifices which are to introduce the day 
as an appointed observance, and these are the 
same as those for the day of trumpet blowing. 



12-38. 8. Feast of Booths. This festival 
with its holy convocation the first day and its 
eighth day 'otzereth, or closing festival, is com- 
manded in Lev. 23 : 33-36. It is there pre- 
scribed that a fire offering shall be made each 
day (ibid., 36), and the passage before gives the 
details of that ofiering. The secular or lay 
manner of keeping this happy festival, espe- 
cially the feature of dwelling in booths, is 
described in Lev. 23 : 39-44. The remarkable 
thing about the ofierings prescribed for this 
festival is the immense number of bullocks 
that are consumed during the seven days. 



Ch. XXX.] 



NUMBERS 



119 



26 And on the fifth day nine bullocks, two rams, 
and fourteen lambs of the first year without spot : 

27 And their meat offering and their drink offer- 
ings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the 
lambs, shall be according to their number, after tlie 
manner : 

28 And one goat/or a sin offering ; beside the con- 
tinual burnt offering, and his meat offering, and 
his drink offering. 

29 And on the sixth day eight bullocks, two rams, 
and fourteen lambs of the first year without 
blemish : 

30 And their meat offering and their drink offer- 
ings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the 
lambs, shall be according to their number, after the 
manner : 

31 And one goat /or a sin offering ; beside the con- 
tinual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his 
drink offering. 

32 And on the seventh day seven bullocks, two 
rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without 
blemish : 

33 And their meat offering and their drink offer- 
ings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the 
lambs, shall be according to their number, after the 
manner : 

34 And one goat /or a sin offering ; beside the con- 
tinual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his 
drink offering. 

35 On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn 
assembly : ye shall do no servile work therein: 

36 But ye shall offer a burnt offering, a sacrifice 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord : one 
bullock, one ram, seven lambs of the first year 
without blemish : 

37 Their meat offering and their drink offerings for 
the bullock, for the ram, and for the lambs, shall be 
according to their number, after the manner : 

38 And one goat /or a sin offering ; beside the con- 
tinual burnt offering, and his meat offering, and 
his drink offering. 

39 These things ye shall do unto the Lord in your 
set feasts, beside your vows, and your freewill offer- 
ings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meat 
offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your 
peace offerings. 

40 And Moses told the children of Israel accord- 
ing to all that the Lord commanded Moses. 



26 And on the fifth day nine bullocks, two rams, 
fourteen he-lambs of the first year without 

27 blemish : and their meal offering and their 
drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, 
and for the lambs, according to their number, 

28 after the ordinance : and one he-goat for a sin 
offering ; beside the continual burnt offering, 
and the meal offering thereof, and the drink 
offering thereof. 

29 And on the sixth day eight bullocks, two rams, 
fourteen he-lambs of the first year without 

30 blemish : and their meal offering and their 
drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, 
and for the lambs, according to their number, 

31 after the ordinance : and one he-goat for a sin 
offering ; beside the continual burnt offering, 
the meal offering thereof, and the drink offer- 
ings thereof. 

32 And on the seventh day seven bullocks, two 
rams, fourteen he-lambs of the first year with- 

33 out blemish : and their meal offering and their 
drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, 
and for the lambs, according to their number, 

34 after the ordinance : and one he-goat for a sin 
offering ; beside the continual burnt offering, 
the meal offering thereof, and the drink offering 
thereof. 

35 On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn 

36 assembly : ye shall do no servile work : but ye 
shall oft'er a burnt offering, an offering made by 
fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord : one bul- 
lock, one ram, seven he-lambs of the first year 

37 without blemish : their meal offering and their 
drink offerings for the bullock, for the ram, and 
for the Jambs, shall be according to their num- 

38 her, after the ordinance: and one he-goat for a 
sin offering ; beside the continual burnt offer- 
ing, and the meal offering thereof, and the drink 
offering thereof. 

39 These ye shall offer unto the Lord in your set 
feasts, beside your vows, and your freewill offer- 
ings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meal 
offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for 

40 your peace offerings. And Moses told the chil- 
dren of Israel according to all that the Lord 
commanded Moses. 



They amount to seventy; but instead of dis- 
posing the number so that ten shall be used 
each day, they are arranged according to a 
diminishing scale, thirteen being offered the 
first day and the sum being daily decreased by 
one, so that on the seventh day the series has 
come down to seven. All the other sacrifices 
are the same for each day. The seven times 
repeated sacrifice of fourteen he lambs makes 
an aggregate of ninety-eight lambs used during 
the festival. All this enormous outlay of sacri- 
ficial material in the court of the sanctuary, 
together with the universal rejoicing of the 
laity in the numerous booths, combined to 
make this the culminating festival of the year. 
On the eighth day, which was an 'atzereth or 
closing festival, the sacrifices reverted to the 
same constituent numbers as those characteriz- 
ing the Day of Atonement and the trumpet- 
blowing feast. 

39, 40. This closing subscription may be 
compared with Lev. 23 : 37, 38, and particularly 
specifies that the foregoing ordinances con- 



tained in these two chapters relate to the public 
offerings maintained at the general expense as 
distinguished from those vows or expressions of 
spontaneous devotion which individuals may 
choose to make from time to time. It is to be 
observed that in the first seven chapters of 
Leviticus where the details of the ritual for the 
various offerings are described, the commands 
are issued in the form of directions to the in- 
dividual who may wish to bring an offering, or 
who may be conscious of sin needing atone- 
ment ; so that some such directions as those 
just given were needed in order to regulate the 
quantity of outlay required for the orderly 
maintenance of the public service. 



Chap. 30. Law regarding the valid- 
ity OF VOWS. 1-5. In a form somewhat vary- 
ing from the usual one, this legislation is reported 
by Moses to the heads of the tribes as received 
by him from Jehovah (ver. i). The priests, who 
are usually the ones most benefited by the per- 
formance of vows, are not here invested with 



120 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXX. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



1 AND Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes 
concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is 
the thing which the Lord hath commanded. 

2 If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an 
oath to bind his soul with a bond ; he shall not 
break his word, he shall do according to all that 
proceedeth out of his mouth. 

3 If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and 
bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house 
in her youth ; 

4 And her father hear her vow, and her bond 
wherewith she liath bound her soul, and her father 
shall hold his peace at her : then ail her vows shall 
stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound 
her soul shall stand. 

5 But if her father disallow her in the day that 
he heareth ; not any of her vows, or of her bonds 
wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand : 
and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father 
disallowed her. 

6 And if she had at all an husband, when she 
vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith 
she bound her soul ; 

7 And her husband heard it, and held his peace 
at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows 
shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound 
her soul shall stand. 

8 But if her husband disallowed her on the day 
that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which 
she vowed, and that which she uttered with her 
lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect : 
and the Lord shall forgive her. 

9 But every vow of a widow, and of her that is 
divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, 
shall stand against her. 



1 AND Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes 
of the children of Israel, saying. This is the 

2 thing which the Lord hath commanded. When 
a man voweth a vow unto the Lord, or sweareth 
an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall 
not break his word ; he shall do according to all 

3 that proceedeth out of his mouth. Also when a 
woman voweth a vow unto the Lord, and bind- 
eth herself by a bond, being in her father's 

4 house, in her youth ; and her father heareth her 
vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound 
her soul, and her father holdeth his peace at 
her : then all her vows shall stand, and every 
bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall 

5 stand. But if her father disallow her in the day 
that he heareth ; none of her vows, or of her 
bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall 
stand : and the Lord shall forgive her, because 

6 her father disallowed her. And if she be mar- 
ried to a husband, while her vows are upon her, 
or the rash utterance of her lips, wherewith she 

7 hath bound her soul ; and her husband hear it, 
and hold his peace at her in the day that he 
heareth it: then her vows shall stand, and her 
bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul shall 

8 stand. But if her husband disallow her in the 
day that he heareth it ; then he shall make void 
her vow which is upon her, and the rash utter- 
ance of her lips, wherewith she hath bound her 

9 soul : and the Lord shall forgive her. But the 
vow of a widow, or of her that is divorced, even 
every thing wherewith she hath bound her soul, 



the superintendence of their fulfilment; it is 
made the concern of the secular judges. It is 
to be noted too, that the legal process of con- 
firming or annulling vows in the family is 
made possible without the intervention of the 
priest ; thus avoiding that priestly interference 
in family life which has so often wrought mis- 
chief in more modern times. The general law 
is that if a man makes a vow, or binds his soul 
with a bond, he must perform what he has 
promised (^er. 2). The distinction is made be- 
tween a vow "TIJ, nedher, and a bond "^DJ^, 'issar, 
the former being the promise to do or give 
something, while the latter is the pledge to re- 
strain one's self from something. The vow of 
the Nazarite (chap. 6) is designated as a positive 
vow, since its most prominent feature is not the 
abstinence but the conspicuous going about 
with long hair. Besides the legislation regard- 
ing the Nazarite vow, a whole chapter in Levit- 
icus (chap. 27) is devoted to vows; but this is 
mainly a list of tarifis and rules for the com- 
mutation of persons or things devoted to Je- 
hovah and redeemed with money. 

After ver. 2 the rest of this chapter is devoted 
to defining the validity of vows made by women. 
The first case is that of a woman making a vow 
while still in her youth in her father's house. 
The law vests in the father the right to confirm 
or annul the vow. If he hears the vow at the 



time it is uttered and makes no objection, the 
vow is regarded as confirmed by his silence 
(ver. 4) ; but if he disallows the vow at the time 
of its utterance, it is annulled, and the divine 
forgiveness is vouchsafed the woman thus de- 
prived of the power to fulfil her promise {^^r. 5). 

6-12. The second case (ver. 6-9) is that of a 
woman who comes into the married state hav- 
ing unfulfilled vows resting upon her — vows 
which were assumed while in her father's 
house either with his tacit consent or without 
his knowledge. The translation of ver. 6 in 
the A. V. is imsatisfactory ; see the E. V. Ac- 
count is taken not only of a formal vow but of a 
rash utterance (ver. 6), which once made must 
be taken seriously. The word translated rash 
utterance is not found elsewhere, though the 
corresponding verb is used in Lev. 5:4. It 
may be that some ill-advised utterance, brought 
to Moses' attention, which was threatening 
trouble in a newly constituted family was the 
occasion of the legislation of this chapter. The 
rule is, that the woman on entering the married 
state can bring in no obligations which the hus- 
band may not annul, if it is his pleasui'e, on their 
coming to his knowledge. He assumes the full 
right which the father had, his authority even 
superseding any obligation which may have been 
created by the parent's former consent. 

The third case (ver. 9) is that of a widow or 



Ch. XXXI.] 



NUMBERS 



121 



10 And if she vowed in her husband's house, or 
bound her soul by a bond with an oath ; 

11 And her husband heard it, and held his peace 
at her, and disallowed her not : then all her vows 
shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound 
her soul shall stand. 

12 But if her husband hath utterly made them 
void on the day he heard them; then whatsoever 
proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or 
concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand : 
her husband hath made them void ; and the Lord 
shall forgive her. 

13 Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict 
the soul, her husband may establish it, or her hus- 
band may make it void. 

14 But if her husband altogether hold his peace 
at her from day to day ; then he establisheth all 
her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her : he 
confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her 
in the day that he heard them. 

15 But if he shall any ways make them void after 
that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her 
iniquity. 

16 These are the statutes, which the Lord com- 
manded Moses, between a man and his wife, be- 
tween the father and his daughter, being yet in her 
youth in her father's house. 



10 shall stand against her. And if she vowed in 
her husband's house, or bound her soul by a 

11 bond with an oath, and her husband heard it, 
and held his peace at her, and disallowed her 
not ; then all her vows shall stand, and every 
bond wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. 

12 But if her husband made them null and void in 
the day that he heard them ; then whatsoever 
proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, 
or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not 
stand : her husband hath made them void ; and 

13 the Lord shall forgive her. Every vow, and 
every binding oath to afflict the soul, her hus- 
band may establish it, or her husband may make 

14 it void. But if her husband altogether hold his 
peace at her from day to day ; then he establish- 
eth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are 
upon her : he hath established them, because he 
held his peace at her in the day that he heard 

15 them. But if he shall make them null and void 
after that he hath heard them ; then he shall 

16 bear her iniquity. These are the statutes, which 
the Lord commanded Moses, between a man and 
his wife, between a father and his daughter, 
being in her youth, in her father's house. 



divorced woman. As she has no protector or 
master, her utterances must maintain their full 
obligation whatever the circumstances, the same 
as those of a man. Finally the case of a mar- 
ried woman making a vow while in her hus- 
band's house is specified (ver. io-i2). The same 
right of repeal is vested in the husband as be- 
longed to the father in the case of the unmar- 
ried daughter ; and the same peril of confirm- 
ing the vow by inattention or silence attends 
him. As the woman, now old enough to make 
vows in her own family, may be presumed to be 
of mature age, the husband's restraining power 
over her promises seems to indicate a recogni- 
tion, according to Oriental ideas, of a certain 
mental inferiority on the part of women. Vows 
are usually assumed under a religious impulse ; 
and since women, as the more emotional sex, 
are always more responsive to religious feelings 
and motives than men, their husbands might 
not infrequently be led to regard the vows made 
by them under stress of strong feeling as not ad- 
justed to a prudent scale of expense, or not con- 
sistent with the full complement of conjugal 
duty. Such religious impressionability appears 
to be regarded as a sort of weakness, whose out- 
come ought to be subject to revision from the 
business head of the family. 

13-16, After asserting in general terms the 
right of the husband to confirm or annul any 
vows or binding oaths which may be taken by 
the wife (ver. i3)^ this section goes on to instance 
the case of a husband allowing the obligation 
and practice of a vow to run on for a considerable 
time, from day to day (ver. i4), without taking 
the trouble to express his dissent. In this case, 
if he chooses to inhibit the vow after a tardy 



recognition of its inconvenience or undesirabil- 
ity, he must bear her iniquity, i. e., assume 
the responsibility for any trouble or guilt 
which she may have incurred through the be- 
lated breaking o£f of her obligation (ver. is). The 
last verse is a general subscription or appended 
title applying to the whole chapter. 



Chap. 31. The wae of vengeance 
AGAINST Midi AN. This chapter, which is in 
the vein of P, appears to be an augmented and 
theoretically conceived compilation fi'om sim- 
pler materials furnished by tradition. "The 
piece," says Dillmann, "though in form a nar- 
rative, is really a piece of legislation, wherein 
the method of procedure against an enemy who 
has incurred the wrath of God, and especially 
the rule for the disposal of the spoil, is set 
forth." Such few details as are given of the 
incitement and preparation for the conflict are 
so ideally and simply regular as almost to sug- 
gest an invention of incidents which took little 
pains for narrative verisimilitude, but was 
rather constructing any sufficient framework 
for the legislation which was the chief concern. 
Moses calls for a thousand men from each tribe 
to execute Jehovah's vengeance, and these are 
furnished in exact tale without regard to the 
tribes' relative military strength and proceed 
armed to the war accompanied by the zealous 
Phinehas, who carries along the sacred gear and 
the prescribed trumpets secundum artem. This 
army proceeds to slaughter without mishap, and 
apparently without resistance, all the males of 
a nation whose virgin daughters alone numbered 
thirty-two thousand, and to bring home all the 
women and little ones, besides flocks and herds 



122 



Is^UMBEES 



[Ch. XXXI. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Avenge the children of Israel of the Midian- 
ites : afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy 
people. 

3 And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm 
some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go 
against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of 
Midian. 

4 Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the 
tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. 

5 So there were delivered out oi the thousands of 
Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand 
armed for war. 



1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites : 
afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy peo- 

3 pie. And Moses spake unto the people, saying, 
Arm ye men from among you for the war.'that 
they may go against Midian' to execute the Lord's 

■i vengeance on Midian. Of every tribe a thousand 
throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send 

5 to the war. So there were delivered, out of the 
thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, 



to the number of more than eight hundred thou- 
sand and much additional treasure in gold orna- 
ments. "In the high figui-es," says Driver, 
"and absence of specific details, the narrative 
resembles the descriptions of wars in the Chron- 
icles or in Judg. 20. The account, as we have 
it, contains elements which are not easy to 
reconcile with historical probability. The dif- 
ficulties of the section are mitigated by the sup- 
position that the simpler materials supplied by 
tradition have here been elaborated by the com- 
piler, in accordance with his love of system, 
into an ideal picture of the manner in which a 
sacred war must have been conducted by Israel." 
1-12. The war here laid upon Moses' con- 
science as his duty was purely a war of divine 
reprisal for the treachery which had attempted 
to corrupt the most inward and essential life of 
the children of Israel. Moses had felt impressed 
with this duty since the time of the plague (25 : 
1"), and he counted the fulfilling of it an appro- 
priate ending for his public career (■^-er. 2). 
Whether the Midianites or Bedouin were them- 
selves fanatical inciters to the worship of Beth- 
peor is not clear ; this seems to have been more 
especially the part which the daughters of Moab 
played (see 25 : 1-5) ; and this was punished by 
the judges of Israel (ibii, ver. 5) . But the Midian- 
ites appear to have been the prime movers in 
the seductions to impurity in which the highest 
nobles on either side were tempters and tempted, 
and in consequence of which a devastating plague 
swept over Israel. These were following a con- 
certed plan which they had adopted at the ad- 
vice of Balaam (^er. le), and they are therefore 
singled out, rather than the Moabites, as the 
more dangerous foes and the more guilty sin- 
ners. A religious war, or war of divine ven- 
geance, the command to which in modem and 
Protestant thought could perhaps not possibly 
authenticate itself as divine, was nevertheless 
eminently in place at the level of society and in 
the circumstances of provocation existing at this 
time. It was not a war of opinion, nor was it 
simply the partisan rage of one tribal deity 



against another. It was a mighty flaming out 

of righteous anger in behalf of a people just 
striving for a foothold in a spiritual life, whose 
whole inner integrity was in peril of being de- 
stroyed through devilish temptations laying hold 
of the strongest of human passions. There is 
something that is of more importance than tol- 
erance — that is, the preservation of spiritual in- 
tegrity, the saving of the soul from destruction. 
Considering the time, and the plane on which 
God was working, we cannot call the account 
erroneous in designating Moses' conviction of 
duty in this case as a revelation from Jehovah. 
Moses gave directions to the people to arm or 
mobilize a force for military service, a thousand 
from each tribe, that they might, as it literally 
reads, "be upon Midian to give the vengeance 
of Jehovah in Midian " (ver. 3). This was to be 
a religious war, in which the punishment in- 
flicted was the punishment due from Jehovah. 
At the same time it does not appear to be con- 
ceived of as a war against the Midianites as 
idolaters, nor is there any consciousness of in- 
vading the realm of another god. The whole 
affair appears to be treated as a procedure in 
which Jehovah has full jurisdiction. This need 
not necessarily be because Israel had at this time 
fully risen to the conception of Jehovah as a 
universal Sovereign ; yet there does seem to be 
indicated a moral sense which identified Jeho- 
vah with that universal divine righteousness 
and cognizance of human wrong which is larger 
than any mere tribal system of worship. That 
the Midianites had any direct part in the Baal- 
peor worship, or that they were idolaters at all. 
is somewhat doubtful. It is to be remembered 
that they were of Abrahamic descent (see Gea. 
25 : 1-4), and that it was from the desert of Midian 
that Moses brought the name Jehovah (see Exod. 
3 : 1, u) ; they may have been recreant and 
wholly worldly pretenders to a Jehovah cult, 
who did not scruple to use the Peor-worship and 
its votaries as a trap (cf. com. on 22 : 22-35). As 
this was a sacred war the object was not merely 
to disable the enemy or bring him to terms, but 



Ch. XXXI.] 



NUMBERS 



123 



6 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of 
every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar 
the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, 
and the trumpets to blow in his hand. 

7 And they warred against the Midianites, as the 
Lord commanded Moses ; and they slew all the 
males. 

8 And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the 
rest of them that were slain ; namely, Evi, and 
Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, live kings of 
Midian ; Balaam also the son of Beor they slew 
with the sword. 

9 And the children of Israel took all the women 
of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took 
the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, 
and all their goods. 

10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they 
dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. 

11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, 
both of men and of beasts. 

12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, 
and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, 
and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, 
unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by 
Jordan near Jericho. 

13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the 
princes of the congregation, went forth to meet 
them without the camp. 

14 And Moses was wroth with the oflScers of the 
host, with the captains over thousands, and captains 
over hundreds, which came from the battle. 

15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all 
the women alive? 

16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, 
through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass 
against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there 
was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. 



6 twelve thousand armed for war. And Moses 
sent them, a thousand ol every tribe, to the war, 
them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, 
to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and 

7 the trumpets for the alarm in his hand. And 
they warred against Midian, as the Lord com- 

8 manded Moses ; and they slew every male. And 
they slew the kings of Midian with the rest of 
their slain ; Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, 
and Reba, the five kings of Midian : Balaam also 

9 the son of Beor they slew with the sword. And 
the children of Israel took captive the women 
of Midian and their little ones; and all their 
cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods, 

10 they took for a prey. And all their cities in the 
places wherein they dwelt, and all their en- 

11 campments, they burnt with fire. And they 
took all the spoil", and all the prey, both of man 

12 and of beast. And they brought the captives, 
and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and 
unto Eleazar the priest, and unto the congrega- 
tion of the children of Israel, unto the camp at 
the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at 
Jericho. 

13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the 
princes of the congregation, went forth to meet 

14 them without the camp. And Moses was wroth 
with the officers of the host, the captains of 
thousands and the captains of hundreds, which 

15 came from the service of the war. And Moses 
said unto them, Have ye saved all the women 

16 alive? Behold, these caused the children of 
Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to com- 
mit trespass against the Lord in the matter of 
Peor, and so the plague was among the congre- 



rather to eradicate his corrupting influence. It 
was therefore a war without quarter (ver. 7,8). 
The army was accompanied by Phinehas, the son 
of the high priest Eleazar, who as the prompt and 
zealous punisher of impurity (25 : 7) — indeed, 
the very embodiment of Jehovah's jealousy in 
the case provocative of this war (ibid., ver. ii) — 
was most eminently fitted to perform such 
priestly functions as were prescribed for mili- 
tary expeditions. He took along the " gear of 
the sanctuary" (ver. 6) and the trumpets for the 
alarm prescribed for such cases in 10 : 1-10. 
This sacred gear, as distinguished from the 
trumpets themselves, consisted perhaps simply 
of such priestly insignia and vestments as were 
necessary for performing his sacred functions 
in the field. No description is given of the 
engagement, whether it was a pitched battle or 
simply an irruption; the writer has in view 
only the results. All the adult males were 
slain, among them being the five kings of Mid- 
ian, who are in .Joshua called princes or vassals 
of Sihon (Josh. 13 : 21)^ and also Balaam, the son 
of Beor (ver. 8). One of these princes, Zur, has 
already been named as the father of the Mid- 
ianitish woman who was slain by Phinehas (25 : 
15). The women and children, with the cattle 
and flocks and goods, were treated all together 
as so much dumb property and brought to Moses 
and Eleazar at the camp in Arboth-Moab (ver. ii, 



12), while the cities and "encampments" were 
burned with fire (ver. lo). These encampments 
— not castles as in the A. V. — were rows or en- 
closures of stone covered with tent-cloth and 
used as habitations. 

13-24. The returning warriors were met by 
Moses and Eleazar and the nobles outside the 
camp, as they were not fit, defiled as they were 
with the work of slaughter, to enter their habi- 
tations until after their period of quarantine 
(ver. 13). These soldiers in their unthinking 
conformity to the rules of primitive warfare had 
treated all the dependents of their able-bodied 
foes as so many mere belongings, and so had 
brought the women and children alive along 
with the cattle. We need to bear in mind how 
absolute was the control of the head of an 
Oriental family over his dependents. Moses 
was displeased at this piece of thoughtlessness, 
and reminded the people that the mature women 
of the Midianites, by being willing to lend their 
persons to a deep-laid scheme of impure entice- 
ment, had risen above the level of mere non- 
combatants, and were therefore to be reckoned 
as a menace to safety (ver. le). Literally, " these 
were unto the children of Israel, at the word of 
Balaam, to venture a trespass against Jehovah." 
All the non-adult males, as prospective warriors, 
and all the women who had had carnal experi- 
ence of the male, as possible enticements to im- 



124 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXXI. 



17 Now therefore kill every male among the little 
ones, and kill every woman that hath known man 
by lying with him. 

18 But all the women children, that have not 
known a man by lying with him, keep alive for 
yourselves. 

19 And do ye abide without the camp seven 
days : whosoever hath killed any person, and who- 
soever hath touched any slain, purify both your- 
selves and your captives on the third day, and on 
the seventh day. 

20 And purify all your raiment, and all that is 
made of skins, and all work of goats' hair, and all 
things made of wood. 

21 And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of 
war which went to the battle. This is the ordinance 
of the law which the Lord commanded Moses ; 

22 Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the 
iron, the tin, and the lead, 

23 Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall 
make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean : 
nevertheless it sliall be purified with the water of 
separation : and all that abideth not the fire ye 
shall make go through the water. 

24 And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh 
day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall 
come into tlie camp. 

25 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

26 Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both 
of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, 
and the chief fathers of the congregation : 

27 And divide the prey into two parts ; between 
them that took the war upon them, who went out 
to battle, and between all the congregation : 

28 And levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men 
of war which went out to battle : one soul of five 
hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and 
of the asses, and of the sheep : 

29 Take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar 
the priest, /or an heave offering of the Lord. 

30 And of the children of Israel's half, thoushalt 
take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the 
beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all man- 
ner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, 
which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the 
Lord. 

31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the 
Lord commanded Moses. 



17 gation of the Lord. Now therefore kill every 
male among the little ones, and kill every 
woman that hath known man by lying with 

18 him. But all the women children, that have 
not known man by lying with him, keep alive 

19 for yourselves. And encamp ye without the 
camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any 
person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, 
purify yourselves on the third day and on the 

20 seventh day, ye and your captives". And as to 
every garment, and all that is made of skin, and 
all work of goats' hair, and all things made of 

21 wood, ye shall purify yourselves. And Eleazar 
the priest said unto the men of war which went 
to the battle, This is the statute of the law 

22 which the Lord hath commanded Moses : how- 
beit the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, 

23 the tin, and the lead, every thing that may abide 
the fire, ye shall make to go through the fire, 
and it shall be clean ; nevertheless it shall be 
purified with the water of separation : and all 
that abideth not the fire ye shall make to go 

24 through the water. And ye shall wash your 
clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, 
and afterward ye shall come into the camp. 

25 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

26 Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both 
of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the 
priest, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the 

27 congregation : and divide the prey into two 
parts ; between the men skilled in war, that 
went out to battle, and all the congregation : 

28 and levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men of 
war that went out to battle : one soul of five 
hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, 

29 and of the asses, and of the flocks: take it of 
their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, 

30 for the Lord's heave offering. And of the chil- 
dren of Israel's half, thou shalt take one drawn 
out of ever}' fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, 
of the asses, and of the flocks, even of all the 
cattle, and give them unto the Levites, which 
keep the charge of the tabernacle of the Lord, 

31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the 



purity through their too forward blandishments, 
were to be ruthlessly slaughtered (ver. it). The 
more modest virgins could be entrusted to the 
morality and self-restraint of their captors (ver. 
18) . As for the soldiers, they must remain without 
the camp for seven days that all who had come 
in contact with the dead might observe the puri- 
fications prescribed in 19 : 11-13 ( ver. i9) . It is es- 
pecially noted that this self- purification must ex- 
tend to all garments and articles made of leather 
or goat's hair or wood ( ver. 20) . Eleazar the high 
priest, as the official under whose special prov- 
ince all matters of ceremonial cleansing came, 
now interposed with his reminder of the " statute 
of the law " promulgated in chap. 19 (see 19 : 2)^ 
and especially with a fuller definition of the 
requirements regarding vessels that were in a 
house infected by the dead (cf. 19 : is). All the 
utensils were to be treated as thus infected. Not 
only were they to be sprinkled with the water of 
purification (ver. 23 )j but whatever could abide 
the fire must be purified by heat, and whatever 
could not must be washed with water. 



25-47. Ver. 25-31 outline the principle on 
which the spoil was to be distributed. In the 
first place it was to be divided by two, one-half 
being given to the men who went to the war, 
and one-half to the congregation that remained 
at home (ver. 27). This is somewhat like that 
principle which David is recorded to have estab- 
lished as an ordinance in Israel (1 Sam. so : 24, 25). 
The case, however, with which his regulation 
set out resulted in giving as much to two hun- 
dred who stayed behind from weakness as to 
twice that number who took the risk and bur- 
den of the foray ; while here the same amount 
of booty falls to twelve thousand warriors as to 
nearly six hundred thousand civilians. More- 
over, despite this enormous disparity in the per 
capita award, the soldiers were still further ad- 
vantaged in being required to pay only one five- 
hundredth as a tribute to Jehovah for the 
priests, while from the great congregation was 
levied ten times as much, or one-fiftieth, for the 
benefit of the' Levites. It is to be noted, how- 
ever, that in David's case the distinction is 



Ch. XXXL] 



NUMBERS 



125 



32 And the booty, being the rest of the prey which 
the men of war had caught, was six hundred thou- 
sand and seventy thousand and five thousand 
sheep, 

33 And threescore and twelve thousand beeves, 

34 And threescore and one thousand asses, 

35 And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of 
women that had not known man by lying with him. 

36 And the half, which was the portion of them 
that went out to war, was in number three hun- 
dred thousand and seven and thirty thousand and 
live hundred sheep: 

37 And the Lord's tribute of the sheep was six 
hundred and threescore and fifteen. 

38 And the beeves were thirty and six thousand ; 
of which the Lord's tribute was threescore and 
twelve. 

39 And the asses were thirty thousand and five 
hundred ; of which the Lord's tribute was three- 
score and one. 

40 And the persons were sixteen thousand ; of 
which the Lord's tribute was thirty and two persons. 

41 And Moses gave the tribute, which was the 
Lord's heave offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as 
the Lord commanded Moses. 

42 And of the children of Israel's half, which 
Moses divided from the men that warred, 

43 (Now the half that pertained unto the congre- 
gation was three hundred thousand and thirty 
thousand and seven thousand and five hundred 
sheep, 

44 And thirty and six thousand beeves, 

45 And thirty thousand asses and five hundred, 

46 And sixteen thousand persons ;) 

47 Even of the children of Israel's half, Moses 
took one portion of fifty, both of man and of beast, 
and gave them unto the Levites, which kept the 
charge of the tabernacle of the Lord ; as the Lord 
commanded Moses. 

48 And the officers which were over thousands of 
the host, the captains of thousands, and captains 
of hundreds, came near unto Moses : 

49 And they said unto Moses, Thy servants have 
taken the sum. of the men of war which are under 
our charge, and there lacketh not one man of us. 

50 We have therefore brought an oblation for the 
Lord, what every man hath gotten, of jewels, of 
gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and 
tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before 
the Lord. 

51 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold 
of them, even all wrought jewels. 

52 And all the gold of the offering that they 
offered up to the Lord, of the captains of thou- 
sands, and of the captains of hundreds, was six- 
teen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels. 



32 Lord commanded Moses. Now the prey, over 
and above the booty which the men of war took, 
was six hundred thousand and seventy thousand 

33 and five thousand sheep, and threescore and 

34 twelve thousand beeves, and threescore and one 

35 thousand asses, and thirty and two thousand 
persons in all, of the women that had not known 

36 man by lying with him. And the half, which 
was the portion of them that went out to war, 
was in number three hundred thousand and 
thirty thousand and seven thousand and five 

37 hundi-ed sheep: and the Lord's tribute of the 
sheep was six hundred and threescore and fif- 

38 teen. And the beeves were thirty and six thou- 
sand ; of which the Lord's tribute was three- 

39 score and twelve. And the asses were thirty 
thousand and five hundred ; of which the Lord's 

40 tribute was threescore and one. And the per- 
sons were sixteen thousand ; of whom the Lord's 

41 tribute was thirty and two persons. And Moses 
gave the tribute, which was the Lord's heave 
offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as the Lord 

42 commanded IIoscs. And of the children of 
Israel's half, which Moses divided off from the 

43 men that warred, (now the congregation's half 
was three hundred thousand and thirty thou- 
sand, seven thousand and five hundred sheep, 

44, 45 and thirty and six thousand beeves, and 

46 thirty thousand and five hundred asses, and six- 

47 teen thousand persons ;) even of the children of 
Israel's half, Moses took one drawn out of every 
fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them 
unto the Levites, which kept the charge of the 
tabernacle of the Lord ; as the Lord commanded 

48 Moses. And the officers which were over the 
thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, 
and the captains of hundreds, came near unto 

49 Moses ; and they said unto Moses, Tliy servants 
have taken the sum of the men of war which 
are under our charge, and there lacketh not one 

50 man of us. And we have brought the Lord's 
oblation, what every man hath gotten, of jewels 
of gold, ankle chains, and bracelets, signet- 
rings, earrings, and armlets, to make atonement 

51 for our souls before the Lord. And Moses and 
Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even 

52 all wrought jewels. And all the gold of the 
heave offering that they offered up to the Lord, 
of the captains of thousands, and of the cap- 
tains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven 



between warriors in active conflict and warriors 
on sentry duty ; while here it is between non- 
productive soldiers and presumably prosperous 
civilians, i 

48-54. The ofl&cers reported to Moses the 
astounding fact that all this slaughter and cap- 
turing of spoil had been accomplished without 
the loss of a man (ver. 49). The warriors evi- 
dently encountered no resistance on the part of 
the Midianites, and probably routed them by a 
sudden attack. They and their men had taken 
an immense quantity of gold trinkets consisting 
of ankle-chains, bracelets, signet-rings, ear- 



rings, and arm-bands, the negotiable wealth of 
their adversaries. In the absence of any sys- 
tem of banking, or any secure place to lay up 
money, Oriental, and especially nomadic, peo- 
ple are in the habit of turning their portable 
wealth into jewels and ornaments which they 
wear on their persons. The Midianites, who 
were placed on the same footing in popular esti- 
mation with the Ishmaelites, were noted for 
wearing ear-rings or nose-rings (Judg- 8 : 24). This 
portable spoil the ofiicers brought to Moses and 
Eleazar as an " atonement for their souls before 
Jehovah " (ver. 50) %, e., an offering, like the 



1 The amount of the spoil " over and above the booty which the men of war took "— i. e,, perhaps spoil 
that could be carried on the person, such as gold ornaments— was as follows : Sheep, 675,000 ; cattle, 72,000; 
jisses, 61,000; maidens, 32,000. Of this quantity tlie soldiers' half amounted to: Sheep, 337,500; cattle, 
36,000; asses, 30,500; maidens, 16,000; of which Jehovah's five-hundredth for the priests was: Sheep, 67ft; 
cattle, 72 ; asses. 61 ; maidens, 32, while of each kind the tribute, or t'rumah, which came from the people's 
half for the Levites was ten times as much. 



126 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXXII. 



53 {For the men of war had taken spoil, every 
man for himself.) 

54 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold 
of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and 
brought it into the tabernacle of the congregation, 
for a memorial for the children of Israel before the 
Lord. 

CHAPTER 

1 NOW the children of Reuben and the children 
of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle : and 
when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of 
Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle ; 

2 The children of Gad and the children of Reu- 
ben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the 
priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, 
saying, 

3 Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, 
and Heshbou, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, 
and Beon, 

4 Even the country which the Lord smote before 
the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and 
thy servants have cattle : 

5 Wherefore, said they, if Ave have found grace 
in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants 
for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan, 



53 hundred and fifty shekels. {For the men of war 

54 had taken booty, every man for himself.) And 
Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the 
captains of thousands and of hundreds, and 
brought it into the tent of meeting, for a memo- 
rial for the children of Israel before the Lord. 

XXXII. 

1 NOW the children of Reuben and the children 
of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle : and 
when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land 
of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for 

2 cattle ; the children of Gad and the children of 
Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to 
Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the 

3 congregation, saying, Ataroth, and Dibon, and 
Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, 

4 and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon, the land 
which the Lord smote before the congregation 
of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants 

5 have cattle. And they said. If we have found 
grace in thy sight, let" this land be given unto 
thy servants for a possession ; bring us not over 



half-shekel tax in Exod. 30 : 15, 16, intended to 
confirm them in the favor of God. Like that 
half-shekel offering too, it was received in the 
tabernacle as a memorial for the children 

of Israel (ver. 54; cf. Exod. 30 : 16). The ValuC of 

the gold amounted to 16,750 shekels, which, 
reckoning the gold shekel at £1.15 to the shekel, 
would be over $96,000 ; or, reckoning, with 
Kautzsch, at £2 or $10 to the shekel, $160,750. 
A reference to the wealth of the Midianites in 
gold ornaments is found in Judg. 8 : 24-26. 



Chap. 32. Allotment of the ter- 

EITOHY EAST OF THE JORDAN. 1-5. This 
account of the allotment of the territory east of 
the Jordan to Eeuben, Gad, and the half-tribe 
of Manasseh is paralleled in Deut. 3 : 12-20, 
only there Moses, as the speaker, according to 
the characteristic habit of Deuteronomy (see 

e. g., Deut. 1 : 9-18, as compared Tvitli Exod. 18 : 13-26) ^ re- 

counts the transaction as if it were done at his 
own initiative. The tribe of Eeuben comes 
first in order of mention only in ver. 1, while 
in all later mentions of the tribes together in 
this chapter Gad is given the precedence. The 
half-tribe of Manasseh does not figure in the 
account until ver. 33. The two tribes of Reuben 
and Gad seem to have been distinguished among 
the tribes for their extensive ownership of cattle 
(ver. 1)^ the statement being literally: "And 
much cattle belonged to the sons of Eeuben and 
Gad, very strong." The names, "land of 
Ja'azer" and "land of Gilead" are inclusive 
terms for the region described by its principal 
cities in ver. 3. Ja'azer was so prominent a 
city that it gave its name to that region of Gil- 
ead in which it was situated (cf. 21 : 32). The 
territory east of the Jordan, much of which is 



still remarkable for the richness of its pasture 
land as compared with western Palestine, is 
thus outlined by Professor Smith : " When we 
pass back into the Old Testament we . . . find 
eastern Palestine, . . known as Over-Jordan 
or ' Abarim,' divided into three parts. But the 
lines of division are not now Yarmuk and Jab- 
bok, but Yarmuk and that line twenty-five 
miles to the south of Jabbok, which divides the 
table-land of Moab from the ridges to the north 
of it. All on the south of this to the Arnon is 
Mishor, or table-land ; all to the north of it, as 
far as the Yarmuk is Gilead ; and all to the 
north of Yarmuk is Bashan. The Mishor, or 
table-land, covered the southern half of the 
Belka'. It was sometimes called the Mishor of 
Medeba (Josh. 13 : 9, le), which town on a high 
mound is conspicuous across the whole of it. 
It was also the Sharon of eastern Palestine. 
The rest of the Belka", from Heshbon to the 
Jabbok, formed the southern half of Gilead ; 
the other half lay between Jabbok and Yarmuk, 
and was therefore equivalent to the modern dis- 
trict of 'Ajlun. The whole region was called 
Gilead, the Land of Gilead, and Mount Gilead, 
the last of which names still survives upon the 
long ridge south of the Jabbok, the Jebel Jela- 
'ad." The representatives of the two tribes in- 
dicated to Moses that the territory controlled by 
the cities named in ver. 3 had been subdued in 
the campaign against Sihon (ver. 4 ; cf. chap. 21 : 
21-31 ), and was therefore unoccupied and avail- 
able for settlement. The names of these cities 
recur, with some variations in form, in ver. S4r- 
38. The admirable adaptation of the region for 
grazing awakened their enthusiasm. The re- 
quest in ver. 5, bring us not over Jordan, 
indicates that, even now at the very beginning 



Ch. XXXII.] 



NUMBERS 



127 



6 And Moses said unto the children of Gad and 
to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go 
to war, and shall ye sit here ? 

7 And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the 
children of Israel from going over into the land 
which the Lord hath given them? 

8 Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from 
Kadesh-barnea to see the land. 

9 For when they went up unto the valley of 
Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the 
heart of the children of Israel, that they should 
not go into the land which the Lord had given 
them. 

10 And the Lord's anger was kindled the same 
time, and he sware, saying, 

11 Surely none of the men that came up out of 
Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see 
the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, 
and unto Jacob ; because they have not wholly 
followed me : 

12 Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, 
and Joshua the son of Nun : for they have wholly 
followed the Lord. 

13 And the Lord's anger was kindled against 
Israel, and he made them wander in the wilder- 
ness forty years, until all the generation, that had 
done evil in the sight of the Lord, was consumed. 

14 And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers' 
stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet 
the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel. 

15 For if ye turn away from after him, he will 
yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye 
shall destroy all this people. 



6 Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of 
Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your 
brethren go to the war, and shall ye sit here ? 

7 And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the 
children of Israel from going over into the land 

8 which the Lord hath given them? Thus did 
your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh- 

9 barnea to see the land. For when they went up 
unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the laud, 
they discouraged the heart of the children of 
Israel, that they should not go into the land 

10 which the Lord had given them. And the 
Lord's anger was kindled m that day, and he 

11 sware, saying. Surely none of the men that came 
up out of" Egypt, from twenty years old and up- 
ward, shall see the land which I sware unto 
Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob ; because 

12 they have not wholly followed me : save Caleb 
the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua 
the son of Nun : because they have wholly fol- 

13 lowed the Lord. And the Lord's anger was 
kiudled against Israel, and he made them wan- 
der to and fro in the wilderness forty years, 
until all the generation, that had done evil in 

14 the sight of the Lord, was consumed. And, be- 
hold, ye are risen up in your fathers' stead, an 
increase of sinful men, to augment yet the tierce 

15 anger of the Lord toward Israel. For if ye turn 
away from after him, he will yet again leave 
them in the wilderness ; and ye shall destroy all 



of the great conquest, the campaigning spirit 
had completely left them. They were full of 
schemes for success in the grazing and dairy 
business. Although when their proposal was 
set in its true light they were very willing to 
help their brethren in their work of conquering 
western Palestine, yet it seems quite probable 
that this was not originally in their thoughts. 
No wider principle had occurred to them than 
that those should conquer who were to occupy, 
even though they themselves were proposing 
to settle in territory which the united effort of 
all the tribes had laid open to them. A certain 
selfish absorption in their own prospects, a cer- 
tain failure to enter into the large enthusiasm 
of a national destiny, seems to have character- 
ized them ; and this with their consequent iso- 
lation from the general interest kept them from 
ever achieving their due measure of greatness. 
In the days of Deborah, while glorious events 
fitted to stir a warlike heart were transpiring 
in west Palestine, Reuben, piping to his flocks, 
rose no higher than uneasy searchings of heart, 
while Gilead abode supine beyond the Jordan 

(see Judg. 5 : 15-17). 

6-15. Moses set their plan before them in 
the light of the whole : Shall your brethren 
go to war, and shall ye sit here? (ver. e.) 

His particular solicitude was lest this breaking 
up of the general enthusiasm into isolated in- 
terests should disincline the hearts of the chil- 
dren of Israel from going over into the land 
destined for them (ver. 7). He had seen the 



eagerness and courage of the preceding genera- 
tion come up to the testing-point and then ooze 
out before the disheartening influence of a few 
panic-stricken spies (ver. 8, 9) ; it was not to be 
wondered at that, in the sluggish vitality of his 
old age, he should tremble for the enthusiasm 
of their untried descendants subjected to the 
chill of preoccupation and reluctance on the 
part of a considerable fraction of their number. 
He recounted the history of that notable coward- 
ice of the spies and of the divine sentence and 
the nightmare of wandering which followed it ; 
and then in stern rebuke he characterized his 
petitioners as an " increase " or " crop" of sin- 
ful men risen up in their fathers' stead (ver. 14), 
whose discouraging attitude might easily pro- 
voke another divine sentence of wilderness- 
wandering, and be responsible for the destruc- 
tion of all that was distinctive in the life of 
Israel (ver. 15). If it were thought worth while 
to refer to the critical analysis of this section, 
we might observe that whoever has put this 
chapter into its present form has drawn quite 
impartially upon both of the manifestly dis- 
tinct accounts of the spies (see com. on chap. 13, 14), 

making the journey end at Eschol Avith JE (ver. 
9 ; cf. 13 : 24) and yet including both Caleb and 
Joshua as exceptions to the general cowardice 
with P (ver. 12; cf. 14 : 6, 30) ; whilc the form 
Kadesh-barnea (ver. 8) is considered by critics 
as a mark of the Deuteronomist. Caleb is here 
called (ver. 12) aKenizzite, or descendant of the 
Edomite Kenaz (Qen. 36 : ii), just as in Josh. 



128 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXXII. 



16 And they came near unto him, and said, We 
will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities 
for our little ones : 

17 But we ourselves will go ready armed before 
the children of Israel, until we have brought them 
unto their place : and our little ones shall dwell in 
the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the 
land. 

18 We will not return unto our houses, until the 
children of Israel have inherited every man his 
inheritance. 

19 For we will not inherit with them on yonder 
side Jordan, or forward ; because our inheritance 
is fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward. 

20 And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this 
thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord to war, 

21 And will go all of you armed over Jordan 
before the Lord, until he hath driven out his 
enemies from before him, 

22 And the land be subdued before the Lord : 
then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless 
before the Lord, and before Israel ; and this land 
shall be your possession before the Lord. 

23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have 
sinned against the Lord : and be sure your sin will 
find 5'ou out. 

24 Build you cities for your little ones, and folds 
for your sheep ; and do that which, hath proceeded 
out of your mouth. 

25 And the children of Gad and the children of 
Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants 
will do as my lord commandeth. 

26 Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all 
our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead : 

27 But thy servants will pass over, every man 
armed for war, before the Lord to battle, as my 
lord saith. 

28 So concerning them Moses commanded Eleazar 
the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the chief 
fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel : 



16 this people. And they came near unto him, and 
said , We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, 

17 and cities for our little ones : but we ourselves 
will be ready armed to go before the children of 
Israel, until we have brought them unto their 
place: and our little ones shall dwell in the 
fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the 

18 land. We will not return unto our houses, until 
the children of Israel have inherited every man 

19 his inheritance. For we will not inherit with 
them on the other side Jordan, and forward ; 
because our inheritance is fallen to us on this 

20 s^ide Jordan eastward. And Moses said unto 
them. If ye will do this thing ; if ye will arm 

21 yourselves to go before the Lord to the war, and 
every armed man of you will pass over Jordan 
before the Lord, until he hath driven out his 

22 enemies from before him, and the land be sub- 
dued before the Lord : then afterward ye shall 
return, and be guiltless towards the Lord, and 
towards Israel ; and this land shall be unto you 

23 for a possession before the Lord. But if ye will 
not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the 
Lord : and be sure your sin will find you out. 

24 Build you cities for your little ones, and folds 
for your sheep ; and do that which hath pro- 

25 ceeded out of your mouth. And the children of 
Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto 
Moses, saying. Thy servants will do as my lord 

26 commandeth. Our little ones, our wives, our 
fiocks, and all our cattle, shall be there in the 

27 cities of Gilead : but thy servants will pass over, 
every man that is armed for war, before the 
Lord to battle, as my lord saith, 

28 So Moses gave charge concerning them to 
Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of 
Nun, and to the heads of the fathers' Jiousea of 



14 : 6, 14, and just as his brother is called a son 
of Kenaz in Josh. 15 : 17 ; Judg. 1 : 13 ; while 
in the passages assigned by critics to P lie is 
designated as simply a descendant of Judah 
(13 : 6 ; 34 : 19). He was Undoubtedly a Judahite 
with an admixture of foreign blood, 

16-27. While this answer on the part of the 
two tribes is not such a direct defense against 
Moses' strong arraignment as would be called 
forth on the spur of the moment, yet it is just 
such an answer as would naturally be presented 
after the tribes had conferred together, in view 
of their lawgiver's attitude, and formulated a 
policy. The sheepfolds (^er. le) were rough en- 
closures of stones piled upon each other into 
which the sheep could be driven at night. The 
building of cities was doubtless the rebuilding 
and fortifying of the dismantled cities which 
had been taken by the children of Israel. The 
word translated little ones is here taken as 
including the wives and meaning substantially 
dependents or non-combatants in general. In 
ver. 26 it is used in a more restricted sense. 
The Eeubenites and Gadites engaged to arm 
themselves ready, or, at a moment's notice (ver. 
17) in presence of the children of Israel — or, 
as they put it after the more theocratic key had 
been set by Moses (see ver. 20, 21, 27, 29, 32), in pres- 



ence of Jehovah — and not to return to their 
homes until every man of their brethren had 
obtained his inheritance (ver. is). They re- 
nounced all claim to a possession over Jordan 
and beyond, and expressed themselves in their 
eagerness as having already secured just the 
place for them this side Jordan eastward 
(ver. 19). On hearing their proposal Moses re- 
plied that if these conditions should be faith- 
fully fulfilled they might return to their chosen 
possession with the consciousness of having met 
all the claims of religion and patriotism (ver. 22) ; 
but if not, his first apprehension would be seen 
to be correct and they would be proven guilty 
of a sinful supineness which would bring a 
sure retribution (ver. 23). He then issued formal 
orders for them to build cities and folds and do 
as they had proposed (ver. 24), to which they 
gave a formal assent and promise (ver. 25-27). 

28-33. Moses now gave directions to those 
under whose supervision the final allotment 
after the conquest would fall (ver. 28; cf. 34 : 16 
seq. ) that under the specified conditions the tribes 
of Gad and Keuben were to have the land of 
Gilead for a possession. This involved not only 
an exception to the regulation already formu- 
lated, namely, that choice of territory should be 
by lot (see 26 : 55), but most probably an addition 



Ch. XXXII.] 



NUMBERS 



129 



29 And Moses said unto them, If the children of 
Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you 
over Jordan, every man armed to battle, before the 
Lord, and the land shall be subdued before you ; 
then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a 
possession : 

30 But if they will not pass over with you armed, 
they shall have possessions among you in the land 
of Canaan. 

31 And the children of Gad and the children of 
Reuben answered, saying, As the Lord hath said 
unto thy servants, so will we do. 

32 We* will pass over armed before the Lord into 
the land of Canaan, that the possession of our in- 
heritance on this side Jordan may he ours. 

33 And Moses gave unto them, even to the chil- 
dren of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and 
unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, 
the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and 
the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, with 
the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of 
the country round about. 

34 And the children of Gad built Dibon, and 
Ataroth, and Aroer, 

35 And Atroth, Shophan, and Jaazer, and Jog- 
behah, 

36 And Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran, fenced 
cities : and folds for sheep. 

37 And the children of Reuben built Heshbon, 
and Elealeh, and Kirjathaim, 



29 the tribes of the children of Israel. And Moses 
said unto them. If the children of Gad and the 
children of Reuben will pass with you over Jor- 
dan, every man that is armed to battle, before 
the Lord, and the land shall be subdued before 
you ; then ye shall give them the land of Gilead 

30 for a possession : but if they will not pass over 
with you armed, they shall have possessions 

31 among you in the land of Canaan. And the 
children of Gad and the children of Reuben 
answered, saying, As the Lord hath said unto 

82 thy servants, so will we do. We will pass over 
armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, 
and the possession of our inheritance shall re- 
dd main with us beyond Jordan. And Moses gave 
unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to 
the children of Reuben, and unto the half tribe 
of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of 
Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of 
Og king of Bashan, the land, according to the 
cities thereof with their borders, even the cities 

34 of the land round about. And the children of 

35 Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer; and 

36 Atroth-shophan, and Jazer, and Jogbehah ; and 
Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran : fenced cities, and 

37 folds for sheep. And the children of Reuben 
built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim; 



to the total of territory to be divided, whieli 
evidently according to the original plan in- 
cluded only western Palestine. In the event 
of their failure to meet the requirement they 
should he made to possess among their brethren 
on the west side of the Jordan (ver. so). This 
would involve a more or less forcible trans- 
planting, as the act of recreancy would consist 
in settling where they were. In other words, 
settlement on the east of the Jordan would en- 
tail restriction to western Palestine. Perhaps 
when this formal arrangement was made the 
parties did not realize how much trouble they 
were laying up for themselves among the tribes 
in the event of the agreement not being fulfilled. 
As it turned out the promise was strictly kept 
(see Josh. 22 : 1-3) ; buteveutheu the tribes on the 
east of the Jordan were felt to have a certain 
remoteness and diversity of interest from their 
brethren, so that their first public act after their 
return home subjected them to a suspicion and 
religious jealousy on the part of the other tribes 
which almost provoked a civil war (see josh. 22 : 9, 
seq.). The summary ver. 33, which is thought 
by some to be a later addition, introduces for the 
first time the half- tribe of Manasseh, and in a 
generalized way describes the possession of 
these two-and-a-half tribes as the kingdoms of 
Sihon and Og with their dependent cities and 
the environs. 

34-42. The towns which the children of Gad 
rebuilt and fortified (ver. 34-36) comprised three 
groups or settlements : a Dibon group consisting 
of the first four cities, Dibon, Ataroth, Ar- 
oer, and Atroth-shophan, or the Shophan 



Ataroth ; a couple consisting of Jaazer and its 
neighboring city of Jogbehah ; and a Jordan 
valley group consisting of the towns Beth- 
nimrah and Beth-haran. The first or Dibon 
settlement was considerably separated from the 
others, being in the southern part of the Mishor 
or table-land of Medeba and not far from the 
banks of the Arnon. The four cities lay near 
each other. These cities in the final settlement 
appear to have passed to the tribe of Eeuben, 
whose possession lay to the south and entirely 
outside of Gilead and extended to the Arnon, 
Dibon, called from this tribe Dibon-gad in 33 : 
45, 46, is spoken of by Isaiah and Jeremiah as a 
Moabite town (isa. 15 : 2; jer. 48 : 18, 22)^ having 
probably been recaptured by the Moabites be- 
fore the time of these prophets. It was at this 
place, the modern Dhiban, that the Moabite 
stone, or stone of Mesha, was found in 1868. 
The second group, Ja'azer on the table-land far 
up from the Jordan and almost due east from 
Jericho, and Jogbehah considerably to the north 
over half-way to the Jabbok, came within the 
southern portion of the territory called Gilead ; 
while the third pair, Beth-nimrah — abbreviated 
to Nimrah in ver. 3 — and Beth-haran, were in 
the Jordan valley and could hardly have been 
occupied exclusively by the Gadites until after 
the Israelites had moved over the Jordan, as 
these cities must have lain within the limits of 
the camp where they were now abiding. 

The cities which the Reubenites fortified (ver. 
37, 38) were rather closely grouped around the 
central city ofHeshhon which had been Sihon's 
capital (sec 21 : 26), and with their environs could 



130 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXXIT. 



38 And Nebo, and Baal-meon, (their names being 
changed,) and Shibmah: and gave other names 
unto the cities which they builded. 

39 And the children of Machir the son of Manas- 
seh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed 
the Amorite which was in it. 

40 And Moses gave Gilead unto Machir the son of 
Manasseh ; and he dwelt therein. 

41 And Jair the son of Manasseh went and took 
the small towns thereof, and called them Havoth- 
jair. 

42 And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the 
villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his 
own name. 



38 and Nebo, and Baal-meon, (their names being 
changed,) and Sibmah : and gave other names 

39 unto the cities which they builded. And the 
children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to 
Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amor- 

40 ites which were therein. And Moses gave Gil- 
ead unto Machir the son of Manasseh ; and he 

41 dwelt therein. And Jair the i-ou of Manasseh 
went and took the towns thereof, and called 

42 them Havoth-jair. And Nobah went and took 
Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it 
Nobah, after his own name. 



have occupied only a small part of the territory 
which afterward fell to Reuben (see Josh. 13 : 15, 
seq.) Baal-meon and Shibmah appear in 
ver. 3 as Beon and Sebam. Nebo was retaken by 
Mesha about 895 B. c, as the Moabite stone 
records ; hence Isaiah (i5 : 2) and Jeremiah (is : 
1) speak of it as a Moabite town. Shibmah, or 
Sibmah, became noted for its vines (isa. 16 : 8). 
The parenthetic phrase, their names being 
changed (ver. 38)^ referring to the names Nebo 
and Baal-meon as embodying the names of 
heathen gods, is probably a late gloss or direc- 
tion to the reader, prompted by the prejudice 
which arose against taking the names of heathen 

divinities upon the lips (see Hosea 2 : 17 ; Deut. 12 : 3)j 

and means that the public reader is to make a 
substitution of something else when these names 
are encountered. This is a different thing from 
the deliberate renaming of places mentioned in 
the last clause of the verse. The Eeubenites 
"probably at the partition retained all these 
cities with the exception of Heshbon itself, 
■which, passing to the Levites, was thenceforth 
reckoned as within the tribe of Gad." 

The half-tribe of Manasseh mentioned in ver. 
33 evidently consisted simply of the line of 
Machir. The children of Machir came into pos- 
session of Gilead, i. e., the northern part of 
Gilead and Bashan, purely on account of their 
prowess, by which they had gained an actual 
lodgment there (ver. 39 ; Josh. 17 : 1). Machir, the 
ancestor, whose sons had been born upon 
Joseph's knees (Gen. 50 : 23), belonged to a gen- 
eration far back: but the renown of his de- 
scendants had raised the family almost to the 
dignity of a tribe. Machir is mentioned in the 
song of Deborah (Judg. 5 : u) by the side of 
Ephraim and Benjamin as if he were of co-ordi- 
nate rank. Jair (ver. 41) was the son or descend- 
ant of Manasseh through his grandmother, 
while in the male line he traced his descent 

from Judah (1 Chron. 2 : 21, 22; cf. com. on 27 : 1-5). 

The fame of his family was augmented by one 
of the judges of Israel of the same name, prob- 
ably a descendant (Judg. lo : 3) ; and the name 
was still prominent in this region at the time of 



Christ (Luke 8 : 4i), He went and took their 
(thereof, of them) tent-villages, or havvoth, 
i. e., the tent- villages of the Amorites men- 
tioned in ver. 39, and called them Havoth- 
jair. According to a somewhat doubtful pas- 
sage in Deut. 3 : 14, these havvoth are spoken 
of as in Bashan or Argob, of which Jair is 
there called the conqueror; though here they 
are evidently mentioned as in Gilead, and in 1 
Kings 4 : 13 they are expressly placed there, 
and distinguished from the cities of Argob. 
The original " havvoth -jair " were twenty- three 
in number (1 Chron. 2 : 22). Nobah, who does not 
elsewhere appear in Bible history, took Kenath 
and its "daughters," or dependent villages (ver. 
42), thought to be the same as the modern 
Qanawat, a place where exist considerable ruins 
of Roman and Christian times on the western 
slopes of the mountains of the Hauran. Al- 
though he called the place by his name, and 
the designation is used in Judg. 8 : 11, it seems 
apparent that in process of time the ancient 
name was resumed. 

The conquest of the country to the east of the 
Jordan was never so thoroughly accomplished 
as that on the western side (see Josh. 13 : 13) ; and 
these tribes were the first to be swept away by 
the Assyrians (1 Chron. 5 : 26). The pastoral 
tribes of Reuben and Gad had, in the early his- 
tory, anything but an enviable reputation for 
public spirit (Judg. 5 : 15-17 ; 8 : 4-9) ; but the Ma- 
nassites rendered good service to the nation 
(judg. 5:14), Gideon, and Jephthah probably, 
were of this tribe. The men of Jabesh in 
Gilead, actuated by gratitude (i sam. ii : i-ii), 
were faithful at risk of their lives to their bene- 
factor Saul (1 Sam. 31 : 11-13). It was in this re- 
gion of Gilead that Abner kept alive the cause 
of his master for some years after David came 
to the throne of Judah (2 Sam. 2 : 8-11) ; here the 
great King David himself, fleeing from his son 
Absalom, found refuge and hospitality (2 Sam. 
17 : 24-29) ; and onc of his entertainers on this 
occasion perpetuated in himself the ancient 
name Machir {iua., 27). In the later times of 
the monarchy too, when the northern tribes had 



Ch. XXXIII.] 



NUMBERS 



131 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



1 THESE are the journeys of the children of Is- 
rael, which went forth out of the land of Egypt with 
their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. 

2 And Moses wrote their goings out according 
to their journeys by the commandment of the 
Lord : and these are their journeys according to 
their goings out. 

3 And they departed from Rameses in the first 
mouth, on the fifteenth day of the first month ; on 
the morrow after the passover the children of Is- 
rael went out with an high hand in the sight of all 
the Egyptians. 

4 For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, 
which the Lord had smitten among them : upon 
their gods also the Lord executed judgments. 

5 And the children of Israel removed from Ra- 
meses, and pitched in Succoth, 

6 And they departed from Succoth, and pitched 
in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness. 

7 And they removed from Etham, and turned 
again unto Pihahiroth, which is before Baalzephou : 
and they pitched before Migdol. 

8 And they departed from before Pihahiroth, 
and passed through the midst of the sea into the 



1 THESE are the journeys of the children of Is- 
rael, when they went forth out of the land of 
Egypt by their hosts under the hand of Moses 

2 and Aaron. And Moses wrote their goings out 
according to their journeys by the command- 
ment of the Lord : and these are their journeys 

3 according to their goings out. And they jour- 
neyed from Rameses in the first month, on the 
fifteenth day of the first month ; on the morrow 
after the passover the children of Israel went 
out with an high hand in the sight of all the 

4 Egyptians, while the Egyptians were burying all 
their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten 
among them : upon their gods also the Lord exe- 

5 cuted judgements. And the children of Israel 
journeyed from Rameses, and pitched in Suc- 

6 coth. And they journeyed from Succoth, and 
pitched in Etham, which is in the edge of the 

7 wilderness. And they journeyed from Etliam, 
and turned back unto Pihahiroth, which is be- 
fore Baal-zephon : and they pitched before Mig- 

8 dol. And they journeyed from before Hahi- 
rotti, and passed through the midst of the sea 



fallen away from the true God, the cause of pure 
religion was upheld by the prophet Elijah, the 
greatest of the inhabitants of Gilead (i Kings i7 : i) . 



Chap. 33. List of the camping-places 
OP Israel from Eameses to the plains of 
Moab. Directions respecting the occu- 
pation OF Canaan. 1-4, This group of verses 
forms a sort of historical introduction to the list 
of camping-places which follows. The whole 
chapter in its present form is assigned by critics 
to the source called P. As to the list of places, 
the author here claims to be drawing on a writ- 
ten itinerary which came from the hand of 
Moses himself (ver. 2). Not unlikely, at the time 
this chapter was written, there was in existence 
a list of places which, coming down from the 
remotest antiquity, was attributed to the great 
lawgiver. Only three or four other sections of 
the Pentateuch are in the text itself ascribed to 
the hand of Moses as a writer : the book of the 
Covenant (Exod. 20-23 ; see Exod. 24 : 4) ^ the collcction 
of statutes in Exod. 34 : 10-26 (see ma., 27, 28), the 
record of Jehovah's feud against Amalek, which 
was to be preserved in writing for fulfilment in 
later times (Exod. n : 14), and considerable por- 
tions of the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 31 : 9, 22). 
The belief that Moses wrote the whole Penta- 
teuch is derived from Jewish tradition. This 
historical proem appears to preserve closely 
many of the striking expressions found in the 
account of the departure from Egypt in Exodus. 
The place and manner of setting out are in ac- 
cordance with Exod. 12 : 37-41 ; we have the 
going out "by their hosts" (ver. 1)^ as in Exod. 
: 26 ; 12 : 41 ; the people go out with an high 
hand, as in Exod. 14 : 8 ; and judgment is 



executed on the gods of Egypt, as in Exod. 12 : 
12. That the people should be able to organize 
themselves in fitting form and to go out of 
Egypt with a high hand, or defiantly and 
openly, without immediate pursuit is accounted 
for here by the fact that the Egyptians were 
engaged in burying their dead firstborn. 

5-15. In this section we have the stations of 
the journey from Rameses to Sinai, where the 
children of Israel remained for over a year. 
Eameses and Succoth were districts or regions 
rather than cities. Rameses is the land of 
Goshen. That the children of Israel removed 
from Rameses means that they collected 
from Goshen. There was a great host of them, 
the men alone numbering six hundred thousand 
(Exod. 12 : 37). Succoth — a Hcbrcw name mean- 
ing booths — was a common camping-ground 
where nomads, or tenters, were in the habit of 
pitching their tents. " There was evidently a 
region of this sort between the line of lakes 
which formed the eastern boundary of the land 
of Goshen (or perhaps a little west of that line) 
and the Great Wall (the Khetam-Etham-Shur) 
which lay between Lower Egypt and the wilder- 
ness. At that Succoth the Israelites probably 
made their rendezvous" (Trumbull). The 
name Etham is probably identical with the 
Khetam of the Egyptian monuments. The 
word means a fortification ; and probably some 
important fortification of the line of forts form- 
ing the frontier between Egypt and the wilder- 
ness — the edge of the wilderness — became 
known by preeminence as the Khetam of Zor or 
Lower Egypt. The Hebrew equivalent of Khe- 
tam is Shur, or wall; and hence the children of 
Israel, after the passage of the sea, are said to 



132 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXXIII. 



wilderness, and went three days' journey in the 
•wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah. 

9 And they removed from Marah, and came unto 
Elim : and iu Ehm were twelve fountains of water, 
and threescore and ten palm trees ; and they pitched 
there. 

10 And they removed from Elim, and encamped 
by the Red sea. 

11 And they removed from the Red sea, and 
encamped in the wilderness of Sin. 

12 And they took their journey out of the wil- 
derness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah. 

13 And they departed from Dophkah, and en- 
camped in Alush. 

14 And they removed from Alush, and encamped 
at Repliidim, where was no water for the people to 
drink. 

15 And they departed from Rephidim, and[pitched 
in the wilderness of Sinai. 

16 And they removed from the desert of Sinai, 
and pitched at Kibroth-hattaavah. 

17 And they departed from Kibroth-hattaavah, 
and encamped at Hazeroth. 

18 And they departed from Hazeroth, and pitched 
in Rithmah. 

19 And they departed from Rithmah, and pitched 
at Rimmon-parez. 

20 And they departed from Rimmon-parez, [and 
pitched in Libnah. 

21 And they removed from Libnah, and pitched 
at Rissah. 

22 And they ioumeyed from Rissah, and pitched 
in Kehelathah. 

23 And they went from Kehelathah, and pitched 
Ln mount Shapher. 



into the wilderness : and they went three days' 
journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched 
9 in Marah. And they journeyed from Marah, 
and came unto Elim : and iu Elim were twelve 
springs of water, and threescore and ten palm 

10 trees ; and they pitched there. And they jour- 
neyed from Elim, and pitched by the Red Sea. 

11 And they journeyed from the Red Sea, and 

12 pitched in the wilderness of Sin. And they jour- 
neyed from the wilderness of Sin, and pitched in 

13 Dophkah. And they journeyed from Dophkah, 

14 and pitched in Alush. And they journeyed 
from Alush, and pitched iu Rephidim, where 

15 was no water for the people to drink. And they 
journeyed from Rephidim, and pitched in the 

16 Avilderness of Sinai. And they jcjurneyed from 
the wilderness of Sinai, and pitched in Kib- 

17 roth-hattaavah. And they journeyed from Kib- 

18 roth-hattaavah, and pitched in Hazeroth. And 
they journeyed from Hazeroth, and pitched in 

19 Rithmah. And they journeyed from Rithmah, 

20 and pitched in Rimmon-perez. And they jour- 
neyed from Rimmon-perez, and pitched in Lib- 

21 na'h. And they journeyed from Libnah, and 

22 pitched in Rissah. And they journeyed from 

23 Rissah, and pitched in Kehelathah. And they 
journeyed from Kehelathah, and pitched in 



have gone three days' journey in the wil- 
derness of Etham (ver. s)^ while in Exodus 
the expression is the "wilderness of Shur" 
(Exod. 15 :22). In both passages the meaning is, 
"the wilderness of the Great Wall." Pi- 
hahiroth (ver. 7), or, without the Egyptian 
place-mark P^, simply Hahiroth (■<'er. 8 ; see R. v. )j 
is probably to be identified with the modern 
'Ajrud, about four hours northwest of Suez. 
The places mentioned in this journey from 
Rameses to Sinai correspond with those given 

in Exodus (see Exod. 12 : 37 ; 13 : 20 ; 15 : 22, 23, 27 ; 16 : 

i;i7;i; 19 : 2)^ with the exception that three 
places of encampment are enumerated here 
which are not mentioned in Exodus : the Red 
sea between Elim and the Avilderness of 
Sin (ver. n), and Dophkah and Alush (ver. is, 
14) between the "wilderness of Sin" and 
Rephidim. " The probability of a station on 
the Eed Sea between Elim and the wilderness 
of Sin must be conceded " (Dillmann) . Some 
modern investigators, in their efibrts to find a 
place for Sinai in Midian proper, have argued 
that this Eed Sea station was on the Elanitic 
gulf, the name Yam Suph, or Eed Sea, being 
used in that sense as in Judg. 11 : 16 ; 1 Kings 
9 : 26, and the Israelites having struck com- 
pletely across the peninsula between the gulfs 
of Suez and 'Akabah recording only the stations 
Marah and Elim — which latter is for the pur- 
pose identified with Eloth, or Elath, at the head 
of the gulf of 'Akabah — but their reasoning 



does not seem conclusive. Dophkah and Alush 
are not elsewhere mentioned. 

16-36. The starting out from Mount Sinai 
is narrated in 10 : 11. At Kibroth-hatta- 
avah (ver. 16) occurred the miraculous flight of 
quails related in chap. 11; and at Hazeroth, 
where the people abode more than seven days, 
occurred the rebellion of Miriam and Aaron and 
Miriam's judgment of leprosy (see chap. 12) . From 
ver. 19-36 the stations named have no corres- 
ponding history given in the earlier part of the 
book ; and their identification is almost purely 
conjectural. As, in the history, the children of 
Israel immediately on leaving Hazeroth are 
found in the wilderness of Paran (12 : le) or 
at Kadesh (is : 26) — a place which is not men- 
tioned in this list until ver. 36 — a difficulty 
is found in disposing of these eighteen stations 
between Hazeroth and Kadesh, especially as 
the whole distance from Sinai to Kadesh is in 
Deuteronomy called only eleven days' journey 
(Deut. 1:2). It is generally thought that these 
names refer to places of encampment during the 
forty years' wandering in the wilderness, and 
that the coming to Kadesh in ver. 36 is the 
great assembling of the tribes after their period 
of discipline was ended. It will be observed that 
the route has led through Ezion-gaber (ver. 
35, 36) at the head of the gulf of 'Akabah ; 
and no doubt the wandering was a circuitous 
one (see com. on chap. 2i). The placc Rithmah 
(ver. 18), immediately succeeding Hazeroth, is 



Ch. XXXIII.] 



NUMBEKS 



133 



24 And they removed from mount Shapher, and 
encamped in Haradah. 

25 And they removed from Haradah, and pitched 
in Makhelotli. 

26 And they removed from Makheloth, and en- 
camped at Tahath. 

27 And they departed from Tahath, and pitched 
at Tarah. 

28 And they removed from Tarah, and pitched 
in Mithcah. 

29 And they went from Mithcah, and pitched in 
Hashmonah. 

30 And they departed from Hashmonah, and 
encamped at Moseroth. 

31 And they departed from Moseroth, and pitched 
in Bene-jaakan. 

32 And they removed from Bene-jaakan, and 
encamped at Hor-hagidgad. 

33 And they went from Hor-hagidgad, and pitched 
in Jotbathah. 

34 And they removed from Jotbathah, and en- 
camped at Ebrouah. 

35 And they departed from Ebronah, and en- 
camped at Ezion-gaber. 

36 And they removed from Ezion-gaber, and 
pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh. 

37 And they removed from Kadesh, and pitched 
in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom. 

38 And Aaron the priest went up into mount 
Hor at the commandment of the Lord, and died 
there, in the fortieth year after the children of Is- 
rael were come out of the land of Egypt in the 
first day of the fifth month. 

39 And Aaron was an hundred and twenty and 
three years old when he died in mount Hor. 

40 And king Arad the Cauaanite, which dwelt in 
the south in the land of Canaan, heard of the com- 
ing of the children of Israel. 

41 And they departed from mount Hor, and 
pitched in Zalmonah. 

42 And they departed from Zalmonah, and pitched 
in Punon. 

43 And they departed from Punon, and pitched 
in Oboth. 

44 And they departed from Oboth, and pitched 
in Ije-abarim, in the border of Moab. 



24 mount Shepher. And they journeyed from 

25 mount Shepher, and pitched in Haradah. And 
they journeyed from Haradah, and pitched in 

26 Makheloth. And they journeyed from Makhe- 

27 loth, and pitched in Tahath. And they jour- 

28 neyed from Tahath, and pitched in Terah. And 
they journeyed from Terah, and pitched in 

29 Mithkah. And they journeyed from Mithkah, 

30 and pitched in Hashmonah. And they jour- 
neyed from Hashmonah, and pitched in Mose- 

31 roth. And they journeyed from Moseroth, and 

32 pitched in Bene-jaakan. And they journeyed 
from Bene-jaakan, and pitched in Hor-haggid- 

33 gad. And they journeyed from Hor-haggidgad, 

34 and pitched in Jotbathah. And they journeyed 

35 from Jotbathah, and pitched in Abrouah. And 
they journeyed from Abrouah and pitched in 

36 Eziou-geber. And they journeyed from Ezion- 
geber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin 

37 (the same is Kadesh). And they journeyed 
from Kadesh, and pitched in mount Hor, in the 

38 edge of the land of Edom. And Aaron the 
priest went up into mount Hor at the command- 
ment of the Lord, and died there, in the fortieth 
year after the children of Israel were come out 
of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the 

39 first day of the month. And Aaron was an hun- 
dred and twenty and three years old when he 

40 died in mount Hor. And the Canaanite, the 
king of Arad, which dwelt in the South in the 
land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the 

41 children of Israel. And they journeyed from 

42 mount Hor, and pitched in Zalmonah. And 
they journeyed from Zalmonah, and pitched in 

43 Punon. And they journeyed from Punon, and 

44 pitched in Oboth. And they journeyed from 
Oboth, and pitched lye-abarim, in the border of 



thought to be the encampment in the wilder- 
ness of Paran mentioned in 12 : 16, and to be 
practically identical with Kadesh. A somewhat 
enigmatical insertion in Deut. 10 : 6, 7 mentions 
four of these places, though in a different order, as 
if traversed by the children of Israel in the midst 
of their sojourn at Sinai : Beeroth-hene-jaakan, 
or "wells of the sons of Jaakan," which is 
identical with Bene-jaakan (ver. si), Moserah, 
where Aaron is said to have died, which is but 
the singular form corresponding to the plural 
Moseroth (ver. so), Gudgodah, the same as 
Hor-hagidgad (ver. 32), and Jotbathah 
(see ver. 33). The vcrscs in Deuteronomy are 
evidently a somewhat unintelligent later gloss. 
" An examination of some of the names will 
give a clue as to why they were chosen. Eith- 
mah, a name coming from 'retem,' a broom 
bush, probably means valley of broom bushes. 
Kadesh, ' holy place,' its original name is En- 
mishpat (Gen. u : 7), 'well of judgment' ; Ka- 
desh-barnea, its newer name, ' the land of mov- 
ing to and fro,' or 'wandering,' or 'shaken.' 
Then Eimmon-parez, ' the pomegranate breach.' 



Libnah, ' whiteness,' probably from the white 
poplar trees growing there. Rissah, ' dew.' 
Mount Shapher, 'the mount of beauty' or of 
' goodliness.' Mithcah, ' sweetness,' in reference 
to the water. Hashmonah, 'fatness,' 'fruitful- 
ness,' where to this day there is a pool full of 
sweet living water with abundant vegetation 
around. Bene-jaakan, or, as in Deut. 10 : 6, 
' Beeroth of the children of Jaakan,' ' the wells 
of the children of Jaakan,' probably the wells 
which the Jaakanites had dug on their expulsion 
by the Edomites from their original homes (Gen. 
36 : 27 ; 1 Chron. 1 : 42). Jotbathah, ' goodness,' and 
Ebronah, probably ' fords.' The other names are 
either derived from peculiarities of scenery or 
else from special events, as Kehelathah, ' assem- 
bling'; Makeheloth, 'assemblies'; Haradah, 
'place of terror' " (Henry A, Harper). 

37-49. On the location of Mount Hor (ver. 
37) and the circumstances of the death of Aaron 
(ver. 38, 39), gee com. on 20 : 22-29. On the 
encounter with Arad, see com. on 21 : 1-3. 
The journey from Mount Hor to the plains 
of Moab has been narrated in chap. 21. We 



134 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXXTII. 



45 And they departed from lim, and pitched in 
Ditx)n-gad. 

46 And they removed from Dibon-gad, and en- 
camped in Almon-diblathaim. 

47 And they removed from Almon-diblathaim, 
and pitched in the mountains of Abarim, before 
Nebo. 

48 And they departed from the mountains of 
Abarim, and pitched in tiae plains of Muab by 
Jordan near Jericho. 

49 And they pitched by Jordan, from Beth-jesi- 
moth even unto Abel-shitt'im in the plains of Moab. 

50 And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains 
of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, 

51 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say 
unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into 
the land of Canaan ; 

52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of 
the laud from before you, and destroy all their pic- 
tures, and destroy all their molten images, and 
quite pluck down all their high places : 

53 And ye shall dispossess the iuhabitanis of the 
land, and dwell therein : for I have given you the 
land to possess it. 

54 And ye shall divide the land by lot for an in- 
heritance among your families : and to the more 
ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer 
ye shall give the less inheritance : every man's in- 
hentance shall be in the place where his lot falleth ; 
according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall 
inherit. 

55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of 
the land from before you ; then it shall come to 
pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall 
he pricks in your eyes, and thorns in j^our sides, 
and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. 



45 Moab. And they journeyed from lyim, and 

46 pitched in Dibon-gad. And they journeyed 
from Dibon-gad, and pitched in Almon-dibla- 

47 thaim. And they journeyed from Almon-dibla- 
thaim, and pitched in the mountains of Abarim, 

48 before Kebo. And they journeyed from the 
mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains 

49 of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. And they 
pitched by Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth even 
unto Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab. 

50 And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains 

51 of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, Speak 
unto the children of Israel, and say "unto them, 
^Vhen ye pass over Jordan into the land of Ca- 

52 naan, then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants 
of the land from before you, and destroy all 
their figured stones, and destroy all their molten 

53 images, and demolish all their high places : and 
ye shall take possession of the land, and dwell 
therein : for unto you have I given the land to 

54 possess it. And ye shall inherit the land by lot 
according to your families ; to the more ye shall 
give the more inheritance, and to the fewer 
thou shalt give the less inheritance : whereso- 
ever the lot falleth to any man, that .shall be 
his ; according to the tribes of your fathers 

55 shall ye inherit. But if ye will not drive out the 
inliabitants of the land 'from before you; then 
shall those which ye let remain of tliem be as 
pricks in your eyes, and as thorns in your sides, 
and they shall vex you in the land wherein 



have there the names Oboth (ver. 43 ; cf. 21 : 10) 
and Ije- abarim (ver. a-, cf. 21 : 11). The reader 
is referred to the com. on 21 : 10-20. Dibon- 
gad (ver. 45, 46) is no doubt the same as the 
Dibon mentioned in 21 : 30, which probably 
received the addition gad to its name from its 
having been rebuilt by that tribe (see 32 : 34), 
and to distinguish it from some other Dibon not 
known. Almon-diblathaim (ver. 46), though 
mentioned in this form only here, is probably 
the same as Beth-dihlathaim, enumerated by 
Jeremiah (48 : 22) among the cities of Moab 
upon which the divine judgment had descended. 
The mountains of Abarim (ver. 4-), or "moun- 
tains of the further regions," are the Moabite 
highlands in the neighborhood of Nebo, jutting 
down to the Arabah. The encampment in the 
plains of Moab, already mentioned in 22 : 1, 
is here described as extending from Beth- 
jesimoth to Abel-shittim (ver. 49). 

50-56. The more immediate directions for 
the occupation of Canaan are now taken up, and 
they fill the rest of this chapter and chap. 34, 
after which (35 : 1) the distinct legislation regard- 
ing the Levitical cities is introduced by a repe- 
tition of this formula in ver. 50. In the book 
of the Covenant (see Exod. 23 : 24) the command to 
destroy the idolatrous emblems is recorded, 
along with the prohibition of heathen worship. 
In that chapter the promise is given that Jeho- 
vah, on condition of Israel's faithftdness (iWd., 32) ^ 



will drive out the nations of the land (iwd., ver. 
23, 28) ; with the express consolation for importu- 
nate and disappointed faith that this is to occur 
gradually in order to avoid the inconvenient 
multiplication of wild animals (ibid., ver. 29, 30 )j 
and that the land will yield places to them only 
as they are able to fill them. The divine agency 
employed is to be Jehovah's angel (iWd., ver. 20 ; 
cf. Exod. 32:34; 33:2), and the cxprcss form in 
which their faithfulness is prescribed is that 
they are to listen to his voice and not provoke 
him (Exod. 23 : 21). It is interesting to note that 
in describing the failure of the children of 
Israel in their early efforts to occupy the land 
the book of Judges (2 : 1-5) introduces the 
angel, who has been disregarded, as the ex- 
plainer of their discomfiture. In that explana- 
tion he recalls the characteristic threat found 
here in ver. 55 (see Judg. 2 : 3). In Exod. 34 : 11- 
17 the same command regarding the destruction 
of heathen objects of worship is given, with the 
caution against making alliances with the peo- 
ple : but there also the driving out of the in- 
habitants is a matter of divine promise. By 
some modern critics those passages of promise 
and warning in Exodus are assigned to a redac- 
tor. Here in Numbers, in a manner perhaps 
more characteristic of the priestly source, the 
supernatural element is somewhat more subordi- 
nated, the directions are emphasized by way of 
threat rather than of promise, and the responsi- 



Ch. XXXIV.] 



NUMBERS 



135 



56 Moreover, it shall come to pass, tJiat I shall do 
unto you, as I thought to do unto them. 



66 ye dwell. And it shall come to pass, that as I 
thought to do unto them, so will I do unto you. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Command the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, When ye come into the land of Canaan ; 
(this is the land that shall fall unto you for an in- 
heritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts 
thereof:) 

3 Then your south quarter shall be from the 
wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and 
your south border shall be the outmost coast of the 
salt sea eastward : 

4 And your border shall turn from the south to 
the'ascentof Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin : and 
the going forth thereof shall b'^ from the south to 
Kadesh-barnea, and shall go on to Hazar-addar, 
and pass on to Azmon : 

5 And the border shall fetch a compass from Az- 
mon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of 
it shall be at the sea. 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Command the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, When ye come into the land of Canaan, 
(this is the land that shall fall unto you for an 
inheritance, even the land of Canaan accord- 

3 ing to the borders thereof,) then your south 
quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin 
along by the side of Edom, and your south bor- 
der shall be from the end of the Salt Sea east- 

4 ward : and your border shall turn about south- 
ward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass 
along to Zin : and the goings out thereof shall 
be southward of Kadesh-barnea ; and it shall 
go forth to Hazar-addar, and pass along to Az- 

5 mon : and the border shall turn about from 
Azmon unto the brook of Egypt, and the goings 



bility of driving out the Canaanites is placed 
on the people themselves (ver. 55, 56). The direc- 
tion regarding the dividing of the land in 
ver. 54 is repeated from 26 : 52-56, on which 
see the commentary. It is worth noting that 
while the threat in ver. 56 seems to predict the 
final extinction of the Israelites in case of their 
failure to dispossess the Canaanites completely, 
in the parallel in Leviticus (chap. 26; see ver. u, 45) 
and Deuteronomy (chap. 29, 30 ; seeesp. 30: 1-10), the 
threat ends with the expectation of repentance 
and the gracious promise of restoration. 



Chap. 34. The boundakies of the tee- 

KITORY west op THE JORDAN, OR CANAAN. 

Names of the men who are to divide the 
LAND. 1-15. By the land of Canaan (ver. 2) 
is here meant the territory west of the Jordan. 
This is particularly the land which Israelitish 
feeling considered as " falling" (cf. Ezek. 47 : u; 
judg. 18 : 1) to the tribes as an inheritance, the 
decision of the two tribes and a half to inherit 
on the east of the Jordan being thought of as a 
modification of the original divine arrangement, 
and as an occupation of territory conquered 
from hostile kings rather than descending by 
inheritance from Abraham to whom it was 
given (see Gen. 15 : 18 ; 17:8). The Israclitish 
claim, or anticipation of national destiny, al- 
ways embodied the dream of an extent of terri- 
tory far greater than the nation ever conquered 
and occupied ; though Solomon at the height of 
his power is said by the chronicler to have held 
the kings tributary throughout the region 
claimed (2 Chron. 9 : 26). It was in general de- 
scribed as from the river — i. e., the Euphrates — 
to the river of Egypt, or the wilderness (Gen. 15 : 

18; Exod. 23 : 31; Deut. 11 : 24). 

The outlines of the promised land are drawn 



on the four sides, beginning with the south. 
The south side is indicated in the most general 
terms in the first sentence of ver. 3 : Your 
south quarter, side, shall he from the 
wilderness of Zin along by the coast, on 
the frontiers, of Edom, It will be remembered 
that according to 20 : 16 the territory of Edom 
extended to Kadesh which was in the wilder- 
ness of Zin. From the middle of ver. 3 the 
description of the southern boundary is drawn 
out in detail. It corresponds closely with that 
of the southern boundary of Judah in Josh. 15 : 
2-4. It starts at the end of the Salt Sea on the 
east, or as in Joshua, "the bay that looketh 
southward," and leaving the Ghor or Dead Sea 
Valley at the modern Wady el Fikrah, near 
which was the mountain pass of Akrabbim 
(ver. 4)^ or, the Scorpions, it pursued in general 
a southwestern course past the conical Jebel 
Madurah where Aaron was buried (see com. on 20 : 
22-29) to Zin, reaching its greatest southerly ex- 
tent at Kadesh-barnea, and then by a grad- 
ual sweep to the northward through the un- 
identified places Hazar-addar and Azmon, 
at the latter of which the line took a decided 
turn to the north (ver. 5), it finally struck the 
river of Egypt, or the modern Wady el Arish 
which runs northwest, and came out at the 
Mediterranean Sea. The whole eastern part of 
this course from the Dead Sea to Kadesh, as it 
follows the Wady el Fikrah and the Wady el 
Marrah, is a natural boundary, having a line of 
high cliffs on its northern and western side and 
dividing between cultivable or pasture land and 
desert ; and in like manner its western portion, 
following the Wady el Arish, is still a natural 
boundary, as the land to the south and west 
of that stream all the way to Egypt is barren 
and sandy desert with scarcely any vegetation, 



186 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXXIV. 



6 And as for the western border, ye shall even 
have the great sea for a border : this shall be your 
west border. 

7 And this shall be your north border : from the 
great sea ye shall point out for you mount Hor : 

8 From mount Hor ye shall point out your border 
unto the entrance of Hamath ; and the goings forth 
of the border shall be to Zedad : 

9 And the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the 
goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan : this shall 
be your north border. 

10 And ye shall point out your east border from 
Hazar-enan to Shepham. 

11 And the coast shall go down from Shepham to 
Riblah, on the east side of Ain ; and the border 
shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the 
sea of Chinnereth eastward : 

12 And the border shall go down to Jordan, and 
the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea : this 
shall be your land with the coasts thereof round 
about. 



6 out thereof shall be at the sea. And for the 
western border, ye shall have the great sea and 
the border thereof: this shall be your west bor- 

7 der. And this shall be your north border : from 
the great sea ye shall mark out for you mount 

8 Hor: from Mount Hor ye shall mark out unto 
the entering in of Hamath ; and the goings out of 

9 the border shall be at Zedad : and the border 
shall go forth to Ziphron, and the goings out 
thereof shall be at Hazar-enan : this shall be 

10 your north border. And ye shall mark out your 

11 east border from Hazar-enan to Shepham: and 
the border shall go down from Shepham to Rib- 
lah, on the east side of Ain ; and the border shall 
go down, and shall reach unto the side of the sea 

12 of Chinnereth eastward : and the border shall 
go down to Jordan, and the goings out thereof 
shall be at the Salt Sea : this shall be your land 
according to the borders thereof round about. 



while the right bank toward Gaza is much 
better land. 

The western border was the great, or, Med- 
iterranean, sea (ver. 6). 

The northern boundary cannot be identified 
with certainty. It appears to start at the Medi- 
terranean Sea, but there is no mountain near the 
sea which corresponds in location with the other 
places mentioned so as to be identified with 
mount Hor (ver. 7). There is no northern 
" mount Hor " known. The expression Hor ha- 
har, " Hor the mountain," is the same peculiar 
form as that used to designate the mountain in the 
Negeb where Aaron was buried (20 : 22). " If Hor 
is an archaic form of har, Mount Hor signifies 
some conspicuous height among lesser heights ; 
and when we come to apply this meaning to the 
regions of the Lebanon, we cannot remain long 
in doubt as to the special mount indicated. 
Among all the mountains on the borders of 
Syria and Palestine, Mount Hermon is pre- 
eminently the most conspicuous and important, 
owing to its enormous mass and great elevation, 
which reaches ten thousand feet above the level 
of the sea. On this ground we may identify 
this second Mount Hor with Hermon, although 
Porter, followed by Nebauer and Buhl, prefers 
Jebel Akkar, a N. E. spur of Lebanon" 
(Hastings, "Bible Diet."). To mark out (a 
word which occurs only here and in ver. 8) 
this mountain from the sea would thus mean to 
descry it and use it as a landmark. The next 
landmark is the entrance of Hamath (ver. 
8) which, with our understanding of Mount Hor, 
would be descried westward or toward the sea, 
say at the point where the Leontes, coming down 
from the Beqa'a, or Ccele-Syria, takes a sharp 
turn to the west to reach the sea a little north 
of Tyre. The remainder of the northern border 
toward the sea might be thought of as consti- 
tuted by that stream which is to-day called 



Nahr el Kasimiyeh, or "boundary stream." 
The goings forth, or, extremity, of the northern 
border was to be at Zedad, which is perhaps 
the same as the modern Sadad, about thirty 
miles east of the entrance of Hamath. From 
there evidently the boundary took a turn, per- 
haps toward the south or southwest, taking in two 
places, Ziphron and Hazar-enan, neither 
of which is known, but the latter of which 
formed an angle or extremity terminating what 
was technically the northern boundary. 

The first two or three places mentioned in the 
eastern boundary (ver. 10-12) are not known, 
but they evidently designate places in the region 
of the Lebanon. Hazar-enan evidently marks 
the point from which the line pursues an un- 
interrupted southerly course; the next place, 
Shepham (ver. 11) , is unknown, and all we can 
say of Riblah is that it is not the Riblah in 
the land of Hamath which figured with such an 
unhappy prominence in the history of the 

captivity (2 Kings 23 : 33 ; 25 : 21 ; Jer. 39 : 5 ; 52 : 26), 

It is said to be on the east side of Ain, 

or, the fountain, perhaps, as Jerome understood 
it, the fountain of the Jordan, i. e., some one of 
the several streams issuing from the western 
slopes of Hermon from which the Jordan 
takes its rise. On a slight conjectural change 
in the pointing of the Hebrew the author of the 
"Speaker's Commentary" founds the sugges- 
tion that the name may be, not Eiblah, but Har- 
bel, identical with the Mount Baal-hermon men- 
tioned in Judg. 3 : 3. From this place the bor- 
der goes down to the " shoulder " of the sea of 
Chinnereth — the Old Testament form for Gen- 
nesaret — the sea of Galilee, so well known in the 
Gospel history. The remainder of the eastern 
boundary is marked by the Jordan (ver. 12) ; 
and its extremity is the Salt Sea, the original 
point of departure (see ver. 3). The land thus 
marked out is designated by Moses as the land 



Ch. XXXV.] 



NUMBEES 



137 



13 And Moses commanded the children of Israel, 
saying, This is the laud which ye shall inherit by 
lot, which, the Lord commanded to give unto the 
nine tribes, and to the half tribe : 

14 For the tribe of the children of Reuben ac- 
cording to the house of their fathers, and the tribe 
of the children of Gad according to the house of 
their fathers, have received their inheritance ; and 
half the tribe of Manasseh have received their 
inheritance : 

15 The two tribes and the half tribe have re- 
ceived their inheritance on this side Jordan near 
Jericho eastward, toward the sunrising. 

16 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

17 These are the names of the men which shall 
divide the land unto you : Eleazar the priest, and 
Joshua the son of Nun. 

18 And ye shall take one prince of every tribe, 
to divide the land by inheritance. 

19 And the names of the men are these : Of the 
tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. 

20 And of the tribe of the children of Simeon, She- 
muel the son of Ammihud. 

21 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of 
Chislon. 

22 And the prince of the tribe of the children of 
Dan, Bukki the son of Jogli. 

23 The prince of the children of Joseph, for the 
tribe of the children of Manasseh, Hanniel the 
son of Ephod. 

24 And the prince of tlie tribe of the children of 
Ephraim, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan, 

25 And the prince of the tribe of the children of 
Zebulun, Elizaphan the son of Parnach. 

26 And the prince of the tribe of the children of 
Issachar, Paltiel the son of Azzan. 

27 And the prince of the tribe of the children of 
Asher, Ahihud the son of Shelomi. 

28 And the prince of the tribe of the children of 
Naphtali, Pedahel the son of Ammihud. 

29 These are they whom the Lord commanded to 
divide the inheritance unto the children of Israel 
in the land of Canaan. 



13 And Moses commanded the children of Israel, 
saying. This is the land which ye shall inherit 
by lot, which the Lord hath commanded to give 

14 unto the nine tribes, and to the half tribe : for 
the tribe of the children of Reuben according 
to their fathers' houses, and the tribe of the chil- 
dren of Gad according to their fathers' houses, 
have received, and the half tribe of Manasseh 

15 have received, their inheritance : the two tribes 
and the half tribe have received their inherit- 
ance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, 
toward the sunrising. 

16 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

17 These are the names of the men which shall 
divide the land unto you for inheritance : Ele- 
azar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun. 

18 And ye shall take one prince of every tribe, 

19 to divide the land for inheritance. And these 
are the names of the men : of the tribe of Judah, 

20 Caleb the son of Jephunneh. And of the tribe 
of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of 

21 Ammihud. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad 

22 the son of Chislon. And of the tribe of the 
children of Dan a prince, Bukki the son of 

23 Jogli. Of the children of Joseph : of the tribe 
of the children of Manasseh a prince, Han- 

24 niel the son of Ephod : and of the tribe of 
the children of Ephraim a prince, Kemuel 

25 the son of Shiphtan. And of the tribe of the 
children of Zebulun a prince, Elizaphan the 

26 son of Parnach. And of the tribe of the chil- 
dren of Issachar a prince, Paltiel the son of 

27 Azzan. And of the tribe of the children of 
Asher a prince, Ahihud the son of Shelomi. 

28 And of the tribe of the children of Naphtali a 

29 prince, Pedahel the son of Ammihud. These 
are they whom the Lord commanded to divide 
the inheritance unto the children of Israel in 
the land of Canaan. 



CHAPTER XXXV 



1 AND the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains 
of Moab by Jordan 7iear Jericho, saying, 

2 Command the children of Israel, that they give 
unto the Levites of the inheritance of their pos- 
session cities to dwell in ; and ye shall give also unto 
the Levites suburbs for the cities round about 
them. 

3 And the cities shall they have to dwell in ; 
and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, 
and for their goods, and for all their beasts. 



1 AND the lord spake unto Moses in the plains 

2 of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying. Com- 
mand the children of Israel, that they give unto 
the Levites of the inheritance of their possession 
cities to dwell in; and suburbs for the cities 
round about them shall ye give unto the Levites. 

3 And the cities shall they have to dwell in ; and 
their suburbs shall be for their cattle, and for 



to be inherited by lot (ver. is) and divided 
among the nine tribes and a half, exclusive of 
the tribes of Keuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh, 
who had received their allotment (ver. u, i5). 

16-29. The superintendents of the work of 
apportioning the land by lot were to be the 
civil and religious heads of the nation, Joshua 
and Eleazar. From each of the tribes was 
selected a prince to act as trustee for his 
tribe. Of these men none are otherwise known 
except Caleb of the tribe of Judah. The order 
in which the tribes are mentioned is varied 
somewhat from the order in Avhich they have 
occurred in other accounts, perhaps with a lit- 
tle closer reference to the location of their allot- 
ments in the land. On the adjustment of the 
system of the lot to the territorial requirements of 
the different-sized tribes, see com. on 26 : 52-56. 



Chap. 35, Appointment of cities for 
THE Levites, and cities of refuge. 1-8. 
The legislation here takes a new start, specifying 
again where it was that Jehovah gave the reve- 
lation, as in 33 : 50. Moses is to make the ar- 
rangement that the children of Israel, when the 
land is assigned, shall give to the Levites, who 
have no landed inheritance (see is : 23, 24)^ certain 
designated cities for their abode, together with 
a moderate extent of pasture land round about 
them for their cattle (ver. 2, 3). These are desig- 
nated as cities ... to dwell in (ver. 3), being 
considered, not as so much territory assigned as 
their full and exclusive possession, but simply 
places where they might locate their houses 
(cf. Lev. 25 : 32, 33), and dwcll pcrliaps in close 
association with lay people. It may be ob- 
served that Beth-shemesh, which was desig- 



138 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. XXXV. 



4 And the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall 
give unto the Levites. shall reach from ,the wall of 
the city and outward a thousand cubits round 
about. 

5 And ye shall measure from without the city on 
the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south 
side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two 
thousand cubits, and on the north side two thou- 
sand cubits : and the city sha2l be in the midst : this 
shall be to them the suburbs of the cities. 

6 And among the cities which ye shall give unto 
the Levites there shall be six cities for refuge, which 
ye shall appoint for the manslayer, that he may 
nee thither : and to them ye shall add forty and 
two cities. 

7 So ail the cities which ye shall give to the Le- 
vites shall be forty and eight cities : them shall ye 
give with their suburbs. 

8 And the cities which ye shall give shaU be of 
the possession of the children of Israel : from them 
thai have many ye shall give many ; but from them 
that have few ye shall give few: every one shall 
give of his cities unto the Levites according to his 
inheritance which he inheriteth. 

9 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say 
unto them. When ye be come over Jordan into the 
land of Canaan ; 



4 their substance, and for all their beasts. And 
the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give 
unto the Levitts, shall be from the wall of the 
city and outward a thousand cubits round about. 

5 And ye shall measure without the city for the 
east side two thousand cubits, and for the south 
side two thousand cubits, and for the west side 
two thousand cubits, and for the north side 
two thousand cubits, the city being in the midst. 
This shall be to them the suburbs of the city. 

6 And the cities which ye shall give unto the Le- 
vites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which 
ye shall give for the manslayer to flee thither : 
and beside them ye shall give forty and two 

7 cities. All the cities which ye shall "give to the 
Levites shall be forty and "eight cities : them 

8 shall ye give with their suburbs. And concern- 
ing the cities which ye shall give of the pos- 
session of the children" of Israel, from the many 
ye shall take many ; and from the few ye shall 
take few : every one according to his 'inherit- 
ance which he inheriteth shall give of his cities 
unto the Levites. 

9 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 
10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say 'unto 

them, "When ye pass over Jordan into the land of 



nated as a Levitical city (Josh. 21 : le), seems to 
have had both Levitieal and lay inhabitants 
(1 Sam. 6 : 13, 15) ; and the Setting apart of He- 
bron as a priestly city did not alienate the ter- 
ritory from the inheritance of Caleb (Josh. 21 : 11, 
12). The privileges of redemption were made 
somewhat easier for Levites who were obliged 
to sell their houses in these cities than for ordi- 
nary laymen (see Lev. 25 : 32, 33, and com.) ; but the 

common or pasture lands surrounding these 
cities were inalienable (iwd., 3-i). The regula- 
tion regarding the size of the pasture lands (^er. 
4, 5), appears to be a bit of ideal legislation, 
like that regarding the shape of the Israelitish 
camp (see com. on 2 : 3-34) ^ since few locations in 
Palestine would admit of a square plat with 
exact geometrical measurements all around such 
as are described. Besides, two thousand cubits 
on a side (^er. 5), with one thousand cubits from 
the wall outward (ver. 4), would reduce the city 
itself to a mathematical point. Various solu- 
tions of the puzzle of these measurements have 
been attempted ; but perhaps we can insist on 
no stricter interpretation than the general prin- 
ciple that a space of one thousand cubits, or 
nearly one-third of a mile, should be reserved 
as common land on which the Levites dwelling 
in the cities might pasture their cattle; and 
that, whatever the lay of the land, outside own- 
ers should not encroach nearer than this on any 
side, while in every case a frontage should be 
guaranteed of not less than two thousand cubits. 
The construction of the Hebrew of ver. 6 is 
somewhat confused, but the rendering of the 
E,. V. is to be preferred. In all, these cities 
were to number forty-eight, or an average of 



four to a tribe (^er. 7), but the quota from each 
tribe was to vary according to its area — a prin- 
ciple similar to that followed in adjusting the 
size of portions to the populousness of the 
tribes (see 26 : 54; 33 : 54). In the actual assign- 
ment of Levitieal cities, recorded in Josh. 21, 
the proportion of four to a tribe was adhered to, 
with the exception that the large tribe of Judah, 
together with Simeon, gave up nine cities, and 
Xaphtali in the far north was called on for only 
three. How soon these arrangements as to the 
residence of the Levites came into actual effect, or 
how strictly they were ever carried out in Israel- 
itish history, it is not easy to say. Many of the 
cities named in Joshua as Levitieal cities did 
not come into the actual power of Israel until 
centuries after Joshua's day; and in the times 
of the judges we have mention of Levites liv- 
ing in places not included in the list of Leviti- 
eal cities ( Judg. IT : 7 ; 19 : 1), In the age of David 
and Solomon we for the first time observe a 
recognition of the fact that the Levites were 
dwelling in cities with suburbs or pasture lands 
(1 chron. 13 : 2). After the division of the mon- 
archy perhaps the possibility of a strict local 
provision for these people no longer existed ; at 
least the Deuteronomist everywhere treats the 
Levites as a homeless tribe dependent on the 
hospitality of the people within whose " gates" 
they were sojourning ; and the blessing of Jacob, 
whatever may be its date, recognizes dispersion 
and homelessness as their destiny (Gen. 49 : 7). 

9-15. The divine arrangement regarding the 
cities of refuge is among the most interesting spe- 
cimens of jurisprudence in the Old Testament. 
It is legislation in view of a very ancient custom 



Ch. XXXV.] 



NUMBEKS 



139 



11 Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of 
refuge for "you; that the slayer may flee thither, 
which killeth any person at unawares. 

12 And they shall be unto you cities for refuge 
from the avenger ; that the manslayer die not, until 
he stand before the congregation in judgment. 

13 And of these cities which ye shall give six 
cities shall ye have for refuge. 

14 Ye shall give three cities on this side Jordan, 
and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan, 
which shall be cities of refuge. 

15 These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the 
children of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the 
sojourner among them : that every one that killeth 
any person unawares may flee thither. 

16 And if he smite him with an instrument of 
iron, so that he die, he is a murderer : the murderer 
shall surely be put to death. 

17 And if he smite him with throwing a stone, 



11 Canaan, then ye shall appoint you cities to be 
cities of refuge for you ; that the manslayer 
which killeth any person unwittingly may flee 

12 thither. And the cities shall be unto you for 
refuge from the avenger ; that the manslayer 
die not, until he stand before the congregation 

13 for judgment. And the cities which ye shall 
give shall be for you six cities of refuge. Ye 

14 shall give three cities beyond Jordan, and 
three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan ; 

15 they shall be cities of refuge. For the children 
of Israel, and for the stranger and for the so- 
journer among them, shall these six cities be for 
refuge : that every one that killeth any person 

16 unwittingly may flee thither. But if he smote 
him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, 
he is a manslayer: the manslayer shall surely 

17 be put to death. And if he smote him with a 



whose liability to wrongs and abuses needed to 
be checked. This was the custom of private 
vengeance, or the duty of the next of kin to 
exact the penalty of blood for blood in the case 
of a death by violence. The Go' el , or conser- 
vator of the kinsman's interests (see Lev. 25 : 25, 
seq., 47, seq.), was, in the casc of a kinsman killed, 
more strictly denominated the D"in v^J^ goel 
haddam, or avenger of blood ; and he was the 
one on whom rested the responsibility of retri- 
bution. This ancient and deep-rooted custom 
among the Semitic peoples is not to be looked 
upon as a survival of primitive savagery and 
cruelty, but rather as the earliest provision for 
safeguarding life and securing genuine and se- 
rious justice. As a moral duty which might 
often prove onerous and expensive, rather than 
a mere letting loose of violent passions, the act 
of the Goel may be said to have been com- 
manded by God and binding on the conscience 
like any act of religion. "In however rude 
and uncertain a form, . . the law of goel was a 
true germ of civilized justice which, sanguinary 
for the moment, seized hold of the true judicial 
scope of security for the future ; and by the ter- 
ror of death protected human life" (Mozley, 
" Kuling Ideas in Early Ages "). At the same 
time this custom was one which, by reason of 
its undue subserviency to passion and its inade- 
quate provision for the judicial investigation of 
facts, must necessarily be superseded, as civili- 
zation passed from the nomadic into the more 
settled form, by a better mode of procedure. 
Such a deep-rooted and binding custom, how- 
ever, could not be eradicated at once. The ap- 
pointment of cities of refuge was the beginning 
of a divine education of public sentiment which 
would gradually do away with the custom of 
private vengeance by its own inherent power. 
It still recognized the avenger of blood as the 
executioner in the case of an actual premedi- 
tated murder, but it subtly shifted the central 



enormity of the crime in the people's conception 
from the deed to the intention. Such an insist- 
ence on an investigation of the manslayer's in- 
tention could not but result, in the course of the 
generations, in a state of feeling which would 
make the general habit of private revenge 
utterly out of place. 

These cities of refuge were for the benefit of 
the person who had killed a man at unawares, 
or, unintentionally (ver. n), whether he was an 
actual Israelite or a foreigner (ver. 15). They se- 
cured him from the avenger until he could have 
a trial (ver. 12). This appointment of cities of 
refuge is anticipated in the legislation of the 
book of the Covenant (Exod. 21 : is) ; and there 
are signs in that early legislation that, previous 
to their appointment, the altar of Jehovah 
sometimes afibrded the privilege of asylum 

(ibid., 14; cf. 1 Kings 1 : 50 ; 2 : 28). There WCrC to 

be six of these cities (ver. 13)^ three on the east side 
of the Jordan, and three on the west side (ver. u). 
The book of Deuteronomy makes provision for 
only three cities at first, and conditions the add- 
ing of three more on the completer subduing 
of the land (ceut. 19 : 2, 9). In the subsequent 
carrying out of the provisions of the law, the 
cities actually chosen, according to Josh. 20 : 7, 
8, were Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron in west 
Palestine, and Bezer, Eamoth-gilead, and Golan 
on the east side of the Jordan, 

16-21. The law regarding the cities of refuge 
is repeated in Deut. 19 : 1-11, and also in Josh. 20 : 
1-6. In the section before us those persons are 
described who cannot claim the benefit of its 
provisions. They are those whose act of man- 
slaughter shows prima facie evidence of having 
been committed intentionally ; and the pre- 
sumption of purpose is made to turn very 
largely on the possession of a weapon or the 
deliberate act of plotting. If the deed was done 
with an instrument of iron (ver. le), or Avith 
a stone (ver. n), or with a weapon of wood 



140 



NUMBERS 



[Ch. 



wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a mur- 
derer : the murderer shall surely be put to death. 

IS Or if he smite him with an hand weaiwn of 
wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a 
murderer : the murderer shall surely be put to 
death. 

19 The revenger of blood himself shall slay the 
murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay 
him. 

20 But if he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him 
by laying of wait, that he die : 

21 Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he 
die : he that smote him shall surely be put to death ; 
for he i^? a murderer : the revenger of blood shall 
slay the murderer, when he meeteth him. 

22 But if he thrust him suddenly without en- 
mity, or have cast upon him any thing without 
laymg of wait, 

23 Or with any stone, wherewith a man may 
die, seeing him not. and cast it upon him, that he 
die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his 
harm : 

24 Then the congregation shall judge between 
thtf slayer and the revenger of blood according to 
these judgments : 

25 And the congregation shall deliver the slayer 
out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the 
congregation shall restore hiln to the city of his 
refuge, whither he was fled : and he shall abide in 
it unto the death of the high priest, which was 
anointed with the holy oil. 

26 But if the slayer shall at any time come with- 
out the border of the city of his refuge, whither he 
was fled ; 



stone in the hand, whereby a man may die, and 
he died, he is a mansiayer': the manslayer shall 
38 surely be put to death. ' Or if he smote him with 
a weapon of wood in the hand, whereby a man 
may die. and he died, he is a manslayer: the 

19 mansiayer shall surely be put to death. The 
avenger of blood shall himself put the man- 
slayer to death : when he meeteth him, he shall 

20 put him to death. And if he thrust him of 
hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that 

21 he died : or in enmity smote hirn with his hand, 
that he died : he that smote him shall surely be 
put to death ; he is a manslayer : the avenger of 
blood shall put the manslayer to death, when 

22 he meeteth him. But if he tiirust him suddenly 
without enmity, or hurled upon him any thing 

23 without lying in wait, or with any stone.'where- 
by a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it 
upon him, so that he died, and he was not his 

24 enemy, neither sought his harm : then the con- 
gregation shall judge between the smiter and 
the avenger of blood according to these judge- 

25 ments : and the congregation shall deliver the 
manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of 
blood, and the congregation shall restore him 
to his city of refuge, whither he was fled : and 
he shall dwell therein until the death of the 
high priest, which was anointed with the holy 

26 oil. But if the manslayer shall at any time go 
beyond the border of his city of refuge, whither 



(rer. 18) ^ there is a strong presumption that the 
perpetrator of it deliberately possessed himself of 
the weapon for the purpose, and that he is there- 
fore a murderer. Again, if he took steps to come 
upon his victim unawares (^^er. 20)^ or gave signs 
of having done the act in hatred (ver. 20. 21)^ even 
though he had no weapon in his hand, these 
signs of premeditation and evil motive must be 
taken as proving him a murderer. As such he 
is simply at the mercy of the avenger of blood, 
who is to act as his executioner wherever he 
may meet him (tct. 19). In the statement of the 
law in Deuteronomy the rules of evidence are 
not so fully given, but the judgment of inten- 
tion is made to torn on the presence or absence 
of hatred, and the provision is made that even 
if the murderer seeks the protection of the city 
of refuge, he shall be brought forth by the 
elders of that city and delivered over to the 
avenger (Dent. 19 : 11, 12). 

22-28. We come now to the cases of man- 
slaughter which furnish the occasion for the es- 
tablishment of cities of refage. These are cases 
where the absence of any intention to do the slain 
person any harm may presumably be established. 
Xot a complete list of the forms which the act 
that is innocent of evil intent may assume, but 
only instances or examples of unintentional 
bomieide, are given. They are such cases as a 
suddenly provoked assault which has a more 
serious result than was intended (ver. 22), or an 
unpremeditated hurling of a heavy object, or the 



letting fall of a stone on a person without seeing 
him (ver. 23)jandthe Deuteronomist instances, 
perhaps from experience of an actual case, the 
felling of wood with a companion, and the ac- 
cidental caiLsing of his death through the ax 
head's becoming detached from the helve (Dent. 
19:5), The legal procedure for the manslayer is 
simply to flee from the avenger and gain the 
shelter of the city of refuge if possible before he 
is overtaken (Deut. i9:5), as the avenger incurs 
no guilt for smiting him mortally " while his 
heart is hot," even where the deed which has 
angered him was accidental or unintentional 
(ibid., 6), since the whole responsibility of deter- 
mining the intention rests with the congregation. 
The congregation or court (^er. 24) which is to 
judge between the smiter and the avenger of 
blood is evidently some tribunal in the neigh- 
borhood where the deed was committed, or at 
least somewhere outside of the city of refuge, as 
this court is evidently responsible for "restor- 
ing '' the exonerated culprit to his city of refage 
after the trial (^er. 25). The passage in Joshua 
specifies the preliminary steps to be taken by 
the fugitive, which are : to make formal request 
of the elders of the city for admission (Josh. 20 : 4) , 
and then to remain in the shelter of the city until 
he can appear before the congregation (ibid., 6). 
Even after acquittal, however, the culprit is se- 
cure only on condition he remains in the city of 
refuge, at least imtil the death of the high priest 
then in ofl&ce (•'■er- 25). If the avenger finds him 



Ch. XXXV.] 



NUMBERS 



141 



27 And the revenger of blood find him without 
the borders of the city of his refuge, and the re- 
venger of blood kill the slayer ; he shall not be 
guilty of blood : 

28 Because he should have remained in the city 
of his refuge until the death of the high priest: 
but after the death of the high priest the slayer 
shall return into the land of his possession. 

29 So these things shall be for a statute of judg- 
ment unto you throughout your generations in all 
your dwellings. 

30 Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall 
be put to death by the mouth of witnesses : but 
one witness shall not testify against any person to 
cause him to die. 

31 Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the 
life of a murderer, which i$ guilty of death : but 
he shall surely be put to death. 

32 And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that 
is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come 
again to dwell in the land, until the death of the 
priest. 

33 So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye 
are: for blood it defileth the land : and the land 
cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there- 
in, but by the blood of him that shed it. 

34 Defile not therefore the land which ye shall 
inhabit, wherein I dwell : for I the Lord dwell 
among the children of Israel. 



27 he fleeth ; and the avenger of blood find him 
without the border of his city of refuge, and the 
avenger of blood slay the manslayer; he shall 

28 not be guilty of blood ; because he' should have 
remained in his city of refuge until the death 
of the high priest : but after the death of the 
high priest the manslayer shall return into the 

29 land of his possession. And these things shall 
be for a statute of judgement unto you through- 
out your generations in all your dwellings. 

30 Whoso killeth any person, the manslayer shall 
be slain at the mouth of witnesses : but one wit- 
ness shall not testify against any person that he 

31 die. Moreover ye shall take no ransom for the 
life of a manslayer, which is guilty of death : 

32 but he shall surely be put to death. And ye 
shall take no ransom for him that is fled to his 
city of refuge, that he should come again to 
dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. 

33 So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are : 
for blood, it polluteth the land : and no expia- 
tion can be made for the land for the blood that 
is shed therein, but by the blood of him that 

34 shed it. And thou shalt not defile the land 
which ye inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell : 
for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the children 
of Israel. 



abroad and kills him, lie incurs no guilt (ver. 26, 
2T), as not even the acquittal of his -^uversary is 
thought of as making any moral appeal to him, 
but only as entitling the slayer to physical pro- 
tection. On a change of the high-priestly ad- 
ministration the exonerated homicide may re- 
turn to his own possession in peace (ver. 28), It 
is not clear that the significance of the high 
priest's death as a terminating epoch is derived 
from any expiatory virtue in that death, nor can 
we without the suspicion of fancifulness find in 
it a type of the death of Christ. " The duration 
of his term of oflSce, like that of the reign of a 
king, represents a completed period of the theo- 
cratic life ; what happens in that period has its 
continuance until his retirement, and his suc- 
cessor is the first to introduce changes ( cf- isa. 23 : 
15) " (Dillmann). During the period before 
the monarchy the high priest's term of ofiice 
would be the only official era whose termination 
could serve as an epoch marking the appropriate 
time for changes and readjustments. The same 
is true for the whole time of the nation's life after 
the exile, during which these laws of the Penta- 
teuch were compiled and codified. During the 
time of the monarchy the reign of an anointed 
king would perhaps throw the high priest's 
time of office somewhat into the background as 
a time-marking epoch. 

29-34. The foregoing legislation is pro- 
nounced a statute of judgment (cf. 27:11) valid 
for Israel in all ages and places (ver. 29) . Then fol- 
lows the universal rule regarding testimony that 
a murderer can be sentenced to death only on the 
testimony of witnesses, i. e., more than one 
(ver. bO;, or, as Deuteronomy states it, at least two 



or three witnesses (Deut. 17 : e ; 19 : 15). This rule 
was applied not only in cases of murder, but in 
all capital cases, such as high-handed transgres- 
sion in contempt of the law (seb. 10 : 28 )j or blas- 
phemy; and it will recur to the reader with 
what painstaking scrupulosity the chief priests 
delayed the trial of Jesus until two witnesses 
could be found (Matt. 26 : eo). The converse of 
the rule came often to be asserted rhetorically 
as a principle governing all determination of 
truth, namely, that the testimony of two wit- 
nesses could establish any statement of fact (see 
2 Cor. 13 : 1 ; John 8 : 17). A still more important prin- 
ciple of Hebrew criminal jurisprudence comes 
to light in ver. 31, and that is, that the crime of 
bloodshed does not admit of satisfaction by a 
fine. In the Hebrew mind there was a very 
deep-seated horror of blood. The whole system 
of slain sacrifices was founded on the principle 
that the blood is the life ; and blood shed was 
thought of as polluting the ground (ver. 33, 34)^ or 
crying out to Jehovah for vengeance (Gen. 4 : 10). 
Even in the case of a person being found slain 
in the field, the book of Deuteronomy prescribed 
for the elders of the nearest city a solemn cere- 
mony of purgation, a disclaiming of guilt, and 
prayer for the averting of the divine judgment 
(Deut. 21 : 1-9). The enormity of allowing the 
land to be defiled by unavenged blood is still 
further enhanced by the consideration that Je- 
hovah tabernacles in the land of Israel (ver. 34 ), 
and so renders it holy. No expiation can be 
made for that land when defiled by outpoured 
blood except by the blood of him that shed 
it (ver. 33). It was a principle so fundamental as 
to be referred by Scripture writers to the times 



142 



NUMBEES 



[Ch. XXXYI. 



CHAPTER XXXYI 



1 And the chief fathers of the families of the 
children of Gilead, tae son of Machir, the son of 
Mauasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, 
came near, and spake before Moses, and before the 
princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel : 

2 And they said, the Lord commanded my lord 
to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the 
children of Israel : and my lord was commanded 
by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad 
oiur brother unto his daughters. 

3 And if they be married to any of the sons of 
the other tribes of the children of Israel, then shall 
their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of 
our fathers, and shall be put to the inheritance of 
the tribe ^hereunto they are received : so shall it 
be taken from the lot of "our inheritance. 



1 A2sD the heads of the fathers' houses of the 
family of the children of Gilead, the son of 
Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of 
the sons of Joseph, came near, and spake before 
Moses, and before the princes, the heads of the 

2 fathers' hou.<€s of the children of Israel: and 
they said. The Lord commanded my lord to give 
the land for inheritance by lot to the children 
of Israel : and my lord was commanded by the 
Lord to give the i'nheritauce of Zelophehad our 

3 brother unto his daughters. And if they be 
married to any of the sons of the other tribes of 
the children of Israel, then shall their inher- 
itance be taken away from the inheritance of 
our fathers, and shall be added to the inher- 
itance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong : 
so shall it be taken awav from the lot of our iu- 



of Xoali, that '' whoso shedcleth man's blood, by 
man shall his blood be shed ' ' ( ^en- 9:6). Theper- 
mission of satisfaction by a fin; would be a denial 
of this principle, and would give a play to avarice 
in the administration of justice which might in 
some cases result in the utter subversion of right. 
This safeguarding against avarice dictates the 
prohibition of any money satisfaction or bribe as 
a substitute for the irksome imprisonment of the 
manslayer in his city of refuge until the high 
priest's death (^er. 32). Many would no doubt be 
willing to give large sums to be permitted to 
dwell at large, but in Hebrew thought this would 
be a perversion of justice. 

" Alahomet endeavored to mitigate the law of 
goel, which was often dangerous to innocence ; 
but unfoiTunately he began at the wrong end. 
For, instead of enjoining a previotis investiga- 
tion, that an innocent person might not suffer 
instead of the guilty, he recommended as an act 
of mercy, pleasing in the sight of God, the ac- 
ceptance of a pecuniary compensation from the 
actual murderer, in lieu of revenge. His words 
are : ' In cases of murder, retaliation is pre- 
scribed to the faithful, so that freemen must die 
for freemen, slave for slave, wife for wife. But 
when a man's nearest kinsman departs from 
that right, he has a just claim against the mur- 
derer for a moderate compensation in money, the 
acceptance of which is an alleviation of the 
crime in the sight of God, and an act of mercy. 
But if he afterwards oversteps this rule' {i. e., 
by killing the person to whom he has remitted 
the murder), 'God will punish him severely. 
For the security of your lives rests on the right 
of retaliation' " (Mozley). 

Among the Hebrews at least, the modem con- 
ception of murder as a crime whose punishment 
is solely a matter of public concern has emerged 
from the old blind feeling of the enormity of 
bloodshed largely throtigh the educating inflti- 
ence of the law of the cities of refuge. 



Chap. 36. Oedi>'axce ix eegaed to the 
MAEEIAGE OF HEIEESSES. 1-4. The suit be- 
fore Moses is brought by the "heads of fathers," 
t. €., prominent or distinguished fathers, of 
the family of Gilead, who was descended from 
Machir of the tribe of Manasseh (ver. i). It was 
to this line that the daughters of Zelophehad 
belonged (26 : ^), and these women by special 
request, their father being no longer alive, had 
become heii-esses in their own right (see 21 : 1-11). 
The tribal feeling in this family of Gilead was 
very strong. These children of Machir were 
rejoicing in an inheritance already confirmed 
to them according to their choice and without 
the intervention of the lot. This Gilead land 
had come into their power before they made re- 
quest to have it legally secured to them by Mo- 
ses, and that by their own independent prowess 
rather than by the fortunes of the combined 
tribes, as had the territory given to Eeuben and 

Gad (see 32 : 34-42, and com.). So StrOUg a claU 

spirit had divided the tribe of Manasseh into 
two half-tribes inheriting on opposite sides of 
the Jordan, and had almost raised the family of 
Machir to the dignity of a tribe. Ambitious to 
compact and perpetuate a separate name, it was 
natural that these people should be very tena- 
cious of their tribal holdings, and shoidd watch 
the intentions and movements of these landed 
heiresses of Zelophehad's stock very closely. 
They came before Moses and the princes of the 
children of Israel — to which the LXX add ' ' and 
before Eleazar the priest," as in 27 : 2 — and re- 
counting the decision made with regard to the 
daughters of Zelophehad ('•er. 2 ; cf. 27 : -), pointed 
out the damage which might be inflicted on 
their cherished domain in case these heiresses 
maiTied out of their own tribe (ver. 3). It was 
feared that these women would be obliged or 
induced to annex their inheritance to the tribe 
into which they might marry, although the ex- 
ample of an heiress bringing a husband from 



Ch. XXXVI.j 



NUMBERS 



143 



4 And when the jubile of the children of Israel 
shall be, then shall their inheritance be put unto 
the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are re- 
ceived : so shall their inheritance be taken away 
from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers. 

5 And Moses commanded the children of Israel 
according to the word of the Lord, saying, The 
tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well. 

6 This is the thing which the Lord doth command 
concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, 
Let them marry to whom they think best ; only to 
the family of the tribe of their father shall they 
marry. 

7 So shall not the inheritance of the children of 
Israel remove from" tribe to tribe : for every one of 
the children of Israel shall keep himself to the 
inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. 

8 And every daughter, that possesseth an inher- 
itance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall 
be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her 
father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every 
man the inheritance of his fathers. 

9 Neither shall the inheritance remove from one 
tribe to another tribe ; but every one of the tribes 
of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his 
own inheritance. 

10 Even as the Lord commanded Moses, so did 
the daughters ef Zelophehad : 



4 heritance. And when the jubile of the children 
of Israel shall be, then shall their inheritance 
be added unto the inheritance of the tribe 
whereunto they shall belong : so shall their in- 
heritance be taken away from the inheritance 

5 of the tribe of our fathers. And Moses com- 
manded the children of Israel according to the 
word of the Lord, saying, The tribe of the sons of 

6 Joseph speaketh right. This is the thing which 
the Lord doth command concerning the daugh- 
ters of Zelophehad, saying. Let them marry to 
whom they think best ; only to the family of the 

7 tribe of their father shall they marry. So shall 
no inheritance of the children of Israel remove 
from tribe to tribe: for the children of Israel 
shall cleave every one to the inheritance of the 

8 tribe of his fathers. And every daughter, that 
possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the 
children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the 
family of the tribe of her father, that the chil- 
dren of Israel may possess every man the in- 

9 heritance of his fathers. So shall no inheritance 
remove from one tribe to another tribe ; for the 
tribes of the children of Israel shall cleave 

10 every one to his own inheritance. Even as the 
Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters 



another tribe and reckoning the descendants as 
Manassites was not unknown in this very fam- 
ily (see com. ou 27 : 1-5). Uncertain of the power 
of tribal loyalty to withstand the impulses of 
maidenly affection, these men wanted some 
decision which would make the passing of al- 
lotted estates from tribe to tribe impossible. The 
permanent alienation of the property from the 
tribe is not thought of as actually effected until 
the jubilee (ver. 4)^ because, although "strictly 
speaking, the hereditary property would pass 
at once, when the marriage took place, to the 
tribe into which an heiress married," yet, " up 
to the year of jubilee it was always possible that 
the hereditary property might revert to the 
tribe of Manasseh, either through the marriage 
being childless, or through the purchase of the 
inheritance. But in the year of jubilee all 
landed property that had been alienated was to 
return to its original proprietor or his heir (Lev. 
25 : 13, seq.). In this way the transfer of an in- 
heritance from one tribe to another, which took 
place in consequence of a marriage, would be 
established in perpetuity " (Keil). 

5-9. On listening to his suitors' representa- 
tion — no mention being made in this case, as in 
27 : 5, of the matter being brought before Je- 
hovah — Moses returned judgment that the ar- 
gument of the tribe of Joseph's descendants was 
"so" (ver. 5; cf. 27 : 7), or reasonable. Observe 
how in this matter of tribal inheritance Moses 
takes no official cognizance of families, but only 
of tribes. These suitors are the tribe of the 
sons of Joseph. The decision rendered 
is that these daughters of Zelophehad may 
marry whom they choose, but only within their 



tribe (ver. e), and that this rule must be followed 
by all heiresses of whatever tribe (ver. 8)^ that 
thus the transfer of hereditary property from 
tribe to tribe may be prevented, it being a 
primary consideration that every one shall 
cleave to the inheritance of the tribe of his 
fathers (ver. 7, 9). This appears to be a very de- 
cided fostering of the isolated clan spirit, and 
possibly an arrangement which, retained in 
force too long and too tenaciously, delayed the co- 
alescence of tribal feeling into a unified national 
spirit. " The arrangement was perhaps inevit- 
able ; yet it certainly belonged to a primitive 
social order. The homogeneity of the people 
would have been helped and the tribes held 
more closely together by interchange of land. 
In every law made at an early stage of a peo- 
ple's development there is involved something 
unsuitable to after periods. And perhaps one 
error made by the Israelites was to cling too 
long and too closely to tribal descent and make 
too much of genealogy " (H. A. Watson). All 
this, however, is consonant with the genius of 
the Jewish people manifested not only in na- 
tional life but in a religion whose note is purity, 
isolation, dread of defilement, rather than dif- 
fusion and leavening influence — a religion 
which could not give way in the nation to the 
saving and self-diffusing spirit of Christ, but re- 
jected and crucified him in the interest of its 
own isolation, and so relinquished the task of 
the world's salvation to others. 

10-13. In accordance with tlie decision of 
Moses these daughters of Zelophehad married 
their cousins (ver. ii)^ and so secured their in- 
heritance to their patriotic and ambitious 



144 



XUMBEES 



/ 



[Ch. XXXVL 



11 For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah. and Milcah, 
and N'oah. the daughters of Zelophehad, were 
married unio their lather's brothers' sons : 

12 And they were married into the families of 
the sons ot Manassah the son of Joseph, and their 
inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of 
their father. 

13 These are the commandments and the judg- 
ments, which the Lord commanded by the hand of 
Moses miio the children of Israel in the plains of 
Moab by Jordan near Jericho. 



11 of Zelophehad : for Mahlah, Tirzah. and Hoglah, 
and ^Iilcah, and Noah, the daughters of Ze- 
lophehad, were married unto their fathers' 

12 brothers' sons. They were married into the 
families of the sons of Manasseh the son of 
Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the 
tribe of the family of their father. 

13 These are the commandments and the judge- 
ments, which the Lord commanded by the hand 
of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains 
oi iloab by the Jordan at Jericho. 



tribe (^er. i^). The whole concludes with a 

supplementary title elassi^ng this decision, 
along with the others that are grouped with it 



(see 33: 50; 35 : i), as thosc prior and important 
enactments of Mosaic law which were firamed in 
Arbotii-moab (t«- i3). 



LR~ N 25 



^n .^^.^* 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: June 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Onve 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 

.794\ 77q-2i 1 - 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

IIIM nil III! I ii nil iir ill III I mil 



014 380 457 4 J 



' *' 









^'■■?.fC\ 



^■: 



.V" 



